Objective To explore the association between tobacco exposure and depressive symptoms of college students in Yunnan province,and to provide theoreticalbasis for carry out mental health education and tobacco con-trol among university students.Methods A total of 10 121 first-year students from 4 universities in Kunming and Dali were selected to evaluate the depressive symptoms of college students using the Patient Health Questionnaire(PHQ-9).Chi-square test and Logistic regression model were used to analyze and compare the correlation between the depressive symptoms detection rate of college students with different demographic characteristics and tobacco ex-posure and depressive symptoms.Logistic regression model was stratified by gender and whether or not they had friends.Results The detection rate of depressive symptoms among college students in Yunnan was 39.2%,the ex-posure rate of paper cigarettes 7.9%,the exposure rate of electronic cigarettes 1.5%,and the exposure rate of second-hand cigarettes 59.5%.Logistic regression analysis showed that after controlling confounding variables,ecigarette exposure(OR=1.67,95%CI=1.15-2.44,P=0.007)and secondhand smoke exposure(OR=1.27,95%CI=1.16-1.39,P<0.001)were associated with depressive symptoms in college students.E-cigarette exposure was corre-lated with depressive symptoms in boys(OR=1.83,95%CI=1.13-2.97,P=0.014).Secondhand smoke exposure was associated with depressive symptoms in girls(OR=1.33,95%CI=1.20-1.47,P<0.001).E-cigarette exposure(OR=1.64,95%CI=1.12-2.40,P=0.011)and secondhand smoke exposure(OR=1.26,95%CI=1.15-1.38,P<0.001)were associated with depressive symptoms in college students with friends.Conclusion Tobacco exposure may increase the risk of depression in Yunnan college students.Effective health education and tobacco control meas-ures should be taken to prevent depression symptoms in college students.