Outdoor light at night, air pollution and risk of incident type 2 diabetes

• Published in: Environmental research 2024-12, Vol.263 (Pt 1), p.120055, Article 120055
• Main Authors: Wu, Yonghao, Jiao, Ye, Shen, Peng, Qiu, Jie, Wang, Yixing, Xu, Lisha, Hu, Jingjing, Zhang, Jiayun, Li, Zihan, Lin, Hongbo, Jiang, Zhiqin, Shui, Liming, Tang, Mengling, Jin, Mingjuan, Chen, Kun, Wang, Jianbing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Air Pollution - adverse effects; Air Pollution - analysis; China - epidemiology; Cohort Studies; Cohort study; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - epidemiology; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - etiology; Environmental Exposure - adverse effects; Female; Humans; Incidence; Light - adverse effects; Male; Middle Aged; Nitrogen Dioxide - analysis; Outdoor light at night; Particulate Matter - analysis; Risk Factors; Type 2 diabetes
• ISSN: 0013-9351; 1096-0953; 1096-0953
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.120055

Air pollution and outdoor light at night (LAN) have been reported to be related to type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, their interaction with risk of T2D remains uncertain. Therefore, our study aimed to explore the relationship between outdoor LAN, air pollution and incident T2D. Our study included a cohort of 24,147 subjects recruited from 2015 to 2018 in Ningbo, China. Land use regression models were used to evaluate particulate matter with a diameter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5), ≤10 μm (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Satellite images data with a spatial resolution of 500m was used to estimate outdoor LAN levels. T2D new cases were identified by medical records based on health information system. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Moreover, we investigated the multiplicative and additive interactions between air pollution and outdoor LAN. During 108,908 person-years of follow-up period, 1016 T2D incident cases were identified. The HRs (95% CIs) were 1.22 (1.15, 1.30) for outdoor LAN, 1.20 (1.00, 1.45) for PM2.5, 1.23 (1.11, 1.35) for PM10 and 1.19 (1.04, 1.37) for NO2 in every interquartile range increase, respectively. Furthermore, significant interactions were observed between outdoor LAN and NO2. Our findings indicated that air pollution and outdoor LAN were positively associated with T2D. Moreover, we observed an interaction between outdoor LAN and NO2 suggesting that stronger associations for outdoor LAN and T2D in areas with higher levels of NO2, and for NO2 and T2D in areas with higher levels of outdoor LAN. [Display omitted] •Exposure to outdoor light at night was positively associated with risk of type 2 diabetes.•Exposure to higher levels of air pollution may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.•An interaction between outdoor light at night and NO2 was observed on risk of type 2 diabetes.