Association Between Depressive Symptoms and Blood Biomarkers in Adult Hospitalized Patients: A Multicenter Analysis Across Hospital Districts in Luzhou, China.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the depressive symptoms of patients hospitalized in different hospitals and to further analyze the correlation between depressive symptoms and blood biomarker.

Methods: This is a large-scale, multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in Luzhou, China. A total of 149554 inpatients from January 2022 to December 2023 in our hospital's Wellness Center Hospital District, Zhongshan Hospital District, and Comprehensive Ward were selected for the study. t-test, chi-square test and Pearson correlation analysis were used to explore associations between depressive symptoms and blood biomarker, age and gender.

Results: The levels of depressive symptoms were 8.25 for patients in the Zhongshan Campus, 8.45 in the Health Center Campus, and 8.05 in the Other Campuses. In terms of blood biomarker, we found a positive correlation between depressive symptoms and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels (r = 0.425, P < 0.01). In addition, thyrotropin (TSH) levels were also positively correlated with depressive symptoms (r = 0.352, P = 0.024). Regarding gender, the depressive symptoms were slightly higher in female patients (11.25) than in male patients (8.35%), but this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.053). Age was positively correlated with depressive symptoms, with younger patients having a relatively better psychological state, whereas the prevalence of depressive symptoms increased with age, especially in the older age groups.

Conclusion: There were significant differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms among hospitalized patients in different hospital districts, and depressive symptoms showed correlation with a variety of blood biomarker. More systematic psychological assessment and intervention should be conducted for high-risk patients, especially elderly female patients.