The Longitudinal Relationships between Depression and Smoking in Hardcore Smokers Using Autoregressive Cross-Lagged Modeling

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify the directionality of the causal relationship and interaction between depression and amount of smoking over time in hardcore smokers using longitudinal descriptive analysis. METHODS: Secondary data from the Korean Welfare Panel Study were analyzed using autoregressive cross-lagged modeling. Participants included 342 hardcore smokers who participated in the 8th to 11th waves of the panel study. RESULTS: Analyses revealed that change(s) in depression levels according to time had a significant positive relationship with the total amount of smoking per day (β=.29, β=.19, β=.17, p < .001), while change(s) in total amount of smoking per day according to time had a significant positive relationship with depression (β=.43, β=.50, β=.38, p < .001). Analysis of the cross-lagged effect between depression and total amount of smoking per day showed that depression at one time point had a significantly positive relationship with the total amount of smoking per day at the next time point (β=.14, β=.13, β=.13, p=.021), and that the total amount of smoking per day at one time point had a significant positive relationship with depression at the next time point (β=.04, β=.04, β=.03, p=.044). CONCLUSION: The findings in the present study confirmed a cross-interaction between depression and total amount of smoking per day in hardcore smokers. The present findings could be used to develop appropriate smoking-related interventions.