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In a new study, researchers examined the effects of depressive symptoms on physical health. The team from the Stone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University found that African-American adults have a greater risk of developing asthma if they have higher levels of depressive symptoms.

The researchers, headed by Patricia Coogan, DSc, senior epidemiologist at SEC and research epidemiology professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, monitored 31,848 African American women. The participants, who were a part of the Black Women's Health Study (BWHS), were tracked from 1999 through to 2011. They answered questionnaires in regards to 20 symptoms every two years.

The researchers found that women who reported higher levels of depressive symptoms also had a higher rate of adult-onset asthma. Asthma risk was doubled for women with high levels of depressive symptoms in comparison to women from the low group. Women belonging to the highest group had a depression score equaled to or above 33 and women in the lowest group had scores below 16. The team also found that asthma rates were 2.8 times higher in women with scores equaled to or above 16.

"Our results are consistent with positive findings from three previous studies of depressive symptoms and asthma incidence conducted in smaller and primarily white populations," said Coogan according to Medical Xpress. "The hypothesized mechanism linking depressive symptoms to asthma incidence is depression-related stress and its physiological consequences, particularly effects on the immune system and the airways. Given the high prevalence of both asthma and of depression in women, the association is of public health importance."

Even though the research team did not find a cause-and-effect relationship, the researchers stated that taking precautionary steps for African-American women who are depressed could be helpful. The study was published in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.