Association of Depression, Poor Mental Health Status and Asthma Control Patterns in US Adults Using a Data-Reductive Latent Class Method

Chukwuemeka E Ogbu; Jayashree Ravilla; Menkeoma Laura Okoli; Onyekachi Ahaiwe; Stella C Ogbu; Eun Sook Kim; Russell S Kirby

doi:10.7759/cureus.33966

Association of Depression, Poor Mental Health Status and Asthma Control Patterns in US Adults Using a Data-Reductive Latent Class Method

Cureus. 2023 Jan 19;15(1):e33966. doi: 10.7759/cureus.33966. eCollection 2023 Jan.

Authors

Chukwuemeka E Ogbu¹, Jayashree Ravilla², Menkeoma Laura Okoli¹, Onyekachi Ahaiwe³, Stella C Ogbu⁴, Eun Sook Kim⁵, Russell S Kirby¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA.
² Internal Medicine, Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, USA.
³ Epidemiology and Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, USA.
⁴ Biomedical Sciences, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, USA.
⁵ College of Education, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA.

Abstract

Objectives To explore the association between depression, poor mental health status, and asthma control patterns among US adults using a latent class analysis (LCA) approach. Methods We used data from 10,337 adults aged 18 years and above from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Asthma Call-back Survey. Data-reductive LCA was used to derive asthma control patterns in the population using class variables indicative of asthma control. Besides univariate analysis, adjusted and unadjusted logistic regression models were used to examine the association of depression and poor mental health on the derived asthma control patterns. Results About 27.8% of adults aged <55 reported depression, while 27.3% aged ≥55 years were depressed. The latent class prevalence of asthma control patterns was 42.8%, 31.1%, and 26.1%, corresponding to good, fair, and poor asthma control patterns, respectively. In adults aged <55 years, odds of depression (OR=1.52, 95% CI=1.27-1.82) and poor mental health (OR=1.58, 95% CI=1.27-1.96) were higher in the poor asthma control group compared to the good asthma control group. Odds for depression (OR=1.28, 95% CI=1.06-1.53) were also higher in the moderate asthma control group compared to the good asthma control group. Among those aged ≥55 years, depression odds (OR=1.57, 95% CI=1.31-1.87) were higher in only the poor asthma control group. Conclusions These findings may have public health implications. Detecting, screening, and treating depression and mental health disorders may help improve asthma control in people with asthma.

Keywords: asthma control; depression; epidemiology and biostatistics; latent class analysis; poor mental health.