The association between ambient air pollution exposure and mental health status in Chinese female college students: a cross-sectional study

The association between exposure to air pollution and mental health has not been adequately studied. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore the association between exposure to ambient air pollution and mental health status among female college students. We performed a cross-sectional study involving female students attending college located in Anshan, a heavy industry city in Northeast China. The investigation was performed using electronic questionnaires including the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Cornell Medical Index (CMI), and general well-being (GWB) scale between March and April 2017. The individual daily average of time spent outdoors in each season was used as an indicator of exposure to ambient air pollution. The association between mental health status and exposure to ambient air pollution was analyzed using general linear regression. Of the 412 female participants, 346 (83.98%) submitted valid questionnaires. Multivariate linear regression indicated that GWB was negatively associated with the SCL-90 score, and annual average daily outdoor time and sleep quality were positively associated with the SCL-90 score. This study demonstrated that exposure to ambient air pollution may be a risk factor for mental health problems among female college students.