There are limited data on the association between secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure across the life course and depressive symptoms among older adults. We aimed to investigate the association of childhood household SHS exposure, adulthood household SHS exposure, lifetime social SHS exposure, and their coexistence with depressive symptoms in older adults.

Data were from the 2011–2012 and 2014 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. About 4000 participants (aged 60 years or older) were recruited in a randomly selected half of the counties and cities in China. Data on SHS exposure, past-year depressive symptoms, and covariates were collected using a questionnaire. The chi-square test (for categorical variables) and t-test (for continuous variables) were used to assess differences in the participant characteristics across groups of SHS exposures. We estimated the odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of depressive symptom according to different types of SHS exposure.

Childhood household SHS exposure (OR = 1.42, 95%CI = 1.22–1.66), adulthood household SHS exposure (OR = 1.41, 95%CI = 1.21–1.63) and lifetime social SHS exposure (OR = 1.35, 95%CI = 1.14–1.58) were associated with higher odds of depressive symptoms. Additionally, those with a higher SHS exposure score had higher odds of depressive symptoms (1 point: OR = 1.56, 95%CI = 1.22–2.00; 2 points: OR = 1.77, 95%CI = 1.39–2.25; 3 points: OR = 1.83, 95%CI = 1.45–2.31). The results were similar when stratified by lifetime nonsmoking, former smoking, and current smoking.

Retrospective design may introduce recall bias.

SHS exposure was associated with higher odds of depressive symptoms in older adults, with the effect seeming to be addictive.