The Impacts of Temperature,Relative Humidity and Climate Comfort on Depression Symptoms

YU Ting; ZHANG Yongshan; YUAN Chunhong; LIU Pingping

doi:10.16032/j.issn.1004-4965.2025.050

Abstract：Climate change strongly affects human society.Further research is required to fully understand how the climatic conditions affect human health,particularly mental health.This study investigates how seasonal climatic conditions affect seasonal affective disorder using data from the China Family Panel Study(CFPS,N=58 256),based on nationally representative data from 2012 to 2020.We analyzed the impact of temperature,relative humidity and climate amenity on depression,and compared the effects under different geographical locations and social demographic factors,including gender,age,and household registration.The results are shown as follows.(1)During spring and summer,all meteorological factors significantly affected depression.The climate amenity influence was more significant than that of basic meteorological factors.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.(2)When temperature and relative humidity were controlled simultaneously,the influence on depression was more obvious than that of individual meteorological factor.(3)Different effects of meteorological conditions on depression existed in the same season in different regions.All meteorological indicators on depression showed significant effects in northern cities,while no significant effect was found in the southern cities.(4)Socio-demographic factors also significantly affected depression.For example,the larger the proportion of unmarried population,the higher the level of public depression would be.This study enhances understanding for psychologists,climate scientists,and policymakers regarding psychology application in climate practices and public mental health response.This offers insights for climate-resilient society health strageties.