健康与遗传心理学研究室知识库

人类世界深嵌于生态环境中。气候对人类社会带来重大而深远的影响，人类行为也反作用于气候，二者相互交融和影响。随着气候变化，研究者们越来越重 视气象条件（如气温、湿度等）对人类心理健康的影响。作为全球最严重的精神障碍之一，抑郁具有明显的季节性特点，被称为“季节性精神障碍”，可能同外界气象条件变化显著关联。但目前抑郁的季节性模式仍有争议，相关性和影响机制亟需深入探讨，逐渐成为国内外研究热点。

气象与心理健康关系的复杂性，可能是因为人类能够通过自身生理或感知调控主动适应外界环境，而不仅仅扮演“被动接受者”的角色。人们对外界环境的“感 受温度”，由气温、相对湿度和风速等多种气象因子共同作用构成。基于不同的地理差异及社会人口学因素，不同季节和不同区域的人们对外界气象的热适应能力可能存在显著差异。然而，以往抑郁研究中，较少系统探讨该热点领域。 气象与心理健康关系的复杂性，可能是因为人类能够通过自身生理或感知调控主动适应外界环境，而不仅仅扮演“被动接受者”的角色。人们对外界环境的“感 受温度”，由气温、相对湿度和风速等多种气象因子共同作用构成。基于不同的地理差异及社会人口学因素，不同季节和不同区域的人们对外界气象的热适应能力可能存在显著差异。然而，以往抑郁研究中，较少系统探讨该热点领域。

本研究利用 2012-2020 年中国家庭追踪研究(China Family Panel Studies， CFPS)成人库限制性数据，及全国 202 个气象观测站数据、全国地级市中心经纬度坐标，匹配 75,465 个成人样本。以抑郁量表 CES-D 分数作普通居民抑郁情绪水平指标，基于纵向和横断面研究，采用固定效应混合回归方法，探讨特定季节气象对居民抑郁情绪的影响，同时考察地理性差异（南北方）及社会人口学因素的综合影响。

首先，基于 2012 至 2020 年居民自评抑郁水平，分析其纵向季节性演化。结果发现，抑郁情绪季节性变化明显，但从 2018 年 6 月到 2020 年 11 月，抑郁情绪的季节性变化越来越小。并且，人们夏季抑郁情绪水平受气象变化影响较大。但从2018年6月开始，冬季和夏季都出现抑郁情绪季节性高峰。说明气候变化正在显著影响人心理健康。

基于抑郁情绪呈季节性特点，第二步分析特定季节中气象指标对居民抑郁情绪水平的影响，尤其春夏季节。通过控制年龄、性别、婚姻状态、教育水平、户籍和健康水平等变量，考察春夏季节基本气象因子(气温、相对湿度)和气候舒适 度(寒冷指数、温湿指数和人体舒适度指数)对居民抑郁情绪水平的影响和差异。 结果发现，寒冷指数与抑郁情绪呈显著正相关外，其他气象指标均与抑郁情绪呈显著负性关系，气候舒适度的影响比基本气象指标更大。即春夏季节中气温、相对湿度、温湿指数和人体舒适度升高，居民抑郁情绪水平显著降低，而寒冷指数升高，居民抑郁情绪显著升高。

第二步基础上，第三步以南北方为界进行区域异质性分析，探讨特定季节气象影响抑郁情绪的地区差异。结果表明：在春夏季节，北方城市所有气象指标均显著影响抑郁情绪(p＜0.01)，且北方城市回归系数值是全国值两倍以上；而南方地区春夏季节气象指标与抑郁情绪均无显著影响。这可能表明，北方的气象条件对抑郁情绪产生更强烈的影响。有意思的是，我们还发现北方城市中未婚人口占比越大，居民抑郁情绪水平就越高；而南方城市未发现婚姻同抑郁情绪的显著关系。这表明，北方城市婚姻可能削弱抑郁情绪水平，发挥保护功能。

此前研究表明，气象条件对心理健康可能呈现一定滞后效应。第四步以第二步和第三步为基础，采用“滞后一期”统计方法，以检验实证结果稳健性。结果表明，春夏季节气温、相对湿度和气候舒适度对居民抑郁情绪水平的显著性影响和方向没有发生变化(同第二步)，同时南北方呈现明显差异(同第三步)。这再次验证了春夏季节气象条件会影响抑郁情绪，证实了模型估计结果较稳健。最后本研 究进行月平均气温超过常温(25℃)的滞后检验，发现气象指标与抑郁情绪无显著关系，这可能表明高温对抑郁不存在明显的滞后效果。

本研究创新性匹配全国代表性人口数据和气象观测数据，纳入更具现实参考意义的气候舒适度，进行区域异质性分析，较系统地探索非极端气象条件与抑郁情绪的关系。结果证明，特定季节中温度、相对湿度和气候舒适度对抑郁情绪具有显著影响，并呈现明显地区差异，性别、教育水平、婚姻等社会人口学因素也对抑郁情绪造成一定影响。这一研究有望推动我国对公众气候变化心理问题的关注，并为气候学、心理学相关学科和政府部门制定政策提供启示，助力全民参与气候适应型社会构建。

The human is deeply embedded in the ecological environment. Climate change has significant and far-reaching impacts on human societies, and human behaviors reflect back on climate, with the two intertwining and influencing each other. With growing attention to climate change, researchers are increasingly focusing on the impact of meteorological conditions on human health, particularly mental health. As one of the most serious mental disorders in the world, depression has obvious seasonal characteristics that related to the changes of external meteorological conditions, which is called "seasonal affective disorder". However, the seasonal pattern of depression is still controversial, and its correlation and influence mechanism need to be explored in depth.

The complexity of the relationship between weather and mental health lies in the fact that human beings are capable of adapting to the external environment, rather than merely playing the role of "passive receivers". As a matter of fact, people's "body temperature" of the external environment is composed of a variety of meteorological factors, such as air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed, etc., and different geographic differences, seasonal variations, and socio-cultural and other factors significantly affect people's acceptance of the external weather. However, fewer scholars have explored this area in depth in past studies on depression.

This study innovatively matched nationally representative demographic and meteorological data to explore the potential effects of meteorology on seasonal patterns of depression, while examining the effects under the geographic differences, seasonal variations and different social demographic factors including gender, age and household registration. Based on the adult pool data from the 2012-2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and nationwide monitoring data from 202 meteorological stations, self-reported depression scale of the residents (CES-D scores) were used as explained variable to conduct empirical analyses by fixed effect pooled. We explored the meteorological factors influence on seasonal affective disorder through both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies.

Step 1 conducted a longitudinal time-span analysis based on temperatures and CES-D levels in 2012 to 2020, and found a significant seasonal change in depression levels. With people generally having higher levels of depression in the summer, but seasonal changes in depression were also observed in the winter from June 2018 onwards. In addition, from June 2018 to November 2020, the seasonal changes in depression symptoms of residents became smaller and smaller.

Based on the generally high level of depression among residents in the Spring and Summer seasons, Step 2 examined the effects of single meteorological factors (temperature group: average, maximum and minimum temperatures; relative humidity group: average relative humidity, minimum relative humidity) and multiple meteorological indices (Cool Index, Temperature-Humidity Index, and Body Comfort Meteorology Index) on depression symptoms. The results showed that meteorological factors were all significantly and negatively related to depression, except for the Cool Index, which was positively related to depression, i.e., an increase in temperature, relative humidity, and Temperature-Humidity Index and Body Comfort Meteorology Index in the Spring and Summer significantly reduced the level of depression in the population, while an increase in the Cool Index significantly increased the depression of the population. The study also found that the greater the proportion of females, the lower the level of depression among residents, and the higher the level of educational background, the higher the level of depression symptoms among residents.

Based on Step 2, Step 3 conducted a regional heterogeneity analysis with the southern and northern boundaries to explore the regional differences of weather on seasonal affective disorder. The results showed that in the Spring and Summer seasons, the effects of all meteorological indicators on depression in northern cities were significant at the 0.01 level, and the regression coefficient values in northern cities were more than twice the national values, while none of the meteorological indicators in the Spring and Summer seasons in the southern region had a significant effect on depression. This suggests that there are differences in the effects of meteorological conditions on depression symptoms in the same season in different regions. In addition, there are north-south differences in the effects of socio-cultural control variables on seasonal affective disorder. In northern cities, the larger the proportion of unmarried people, the higher the level of depression; while in southern cities, no significant relationship between marriage and depression was found. Compared with the north, the greater the proportion of older people in the southern cities, the higher the level of depression among the residents.

Previous studies have shown that meteorological conditions may exhibit a lagged effect on mental health. Based on the above cross-sectional analysis, Step 4 lagged the explanatory variables, i.e., meteorological variables, by one period and regressed the model again to ensure the robustness of the empirical results. The results show that the significance and direction of temperature, relative humidity and climate amenity did not change during the Spring and Summer seasons (as in Step 2), while the north and south showed significant differences (as in Step 3). This once again verifies that meteorological conditions in the mid-spring and summer seasons affect seasonal affective disorder, i.e., it shows that the model's estimation results are more robust and reliable.

This study demonstrated that temperature, relative humidity, and climate amenity have a significant effect on seasonal affective disorder and show significant regional differences, manifesting themselves in a more pronounced effect on residents in the north and no effect on residents in the south. It is also verified that political and socio-cultural factors also have a certain impact on seasonal affective disorder depression in residents. This study is expected to promote China's attention to the public's psychological problems of climate change, and provide insights for the related disciplines of climatology and psychology as well as governmental departments to formulate policies to help build a climate-adapted society with the participation of all people.