Impaired Glucose Homeostasis Seen With Exposure to Artificial Light at Night

THURSDAY, Dec. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Exposure to artificial light at night (LAN) is associated with an increased risk for impaired glucose homeostasis and prevalence of diabetes, according to a study published online Nov. 14 in Diabetologia.

Ruizhi Zheng, Ph.D., from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted a nationally representative study involving 98,658 adults recruited from 162 study sites across China to examine the associations for chronic exposure to outdoor LAN with glucose homeostasis markers and diabetes prevalence.

The researchers observed a positive association for outdoor LAN exposure levels with glycated hemoglobin, fasting and two-hour glucose concentrations, and homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance, while a negative association was seen with the homeostasis model assessment-B score. There was a significant association seen for prevalence of diabetes with per-quintile LAN exposure (prevalence ratio, 1.07). Compared with the lowest quintile of exposure, the highest quintile of LAN exposure was significantly associated with an increased prevalence of diabetes (prevalence ratio, 1.28).

"Our findings contribute to the growing literature suggesting that LAN is detrimental to health and demonstrate that LAN may be a potential novel risk factor for diabetes," the authors write. "However, we advise caution against causal interpretation of the findings and call for further studies involving direct measurement of individual exposure to LAN."

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