Association Between Outdoor and Indoor Air Pollution Exposure and Depression Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults Using Machine Learning Approaches

For older adults, depression is a major public health issue, and scientific literature links environmental exposures to depression. This study used machine learning to examine the relationship between indoor and outdoor air pollution and depression in 45-year-old Indians. We classified Indian depressive symptoms using environmental, demographic, and health data using linear support vector machines and neural network classifiers. Our classifiers were assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic and Precision-Recall analyses. The Linear Support Vector Machine classifier outperformed the neural networks and baseline logistic regression classifiers. The results also suggest that machine learning will help public health professionals identify at-risk populations and track environmental factors affecting mental health.