Abstracts
Nearly a quarter of the world’s land has already been polluted by artificial light. And numerous human and animal studies have corroborated that light at night can disrupt metabolism. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the association between outdoor artificial light at night (ALAN) and the presence of metabolic disease. Daily hospital admission cases from Ningxia, China, between 2014 and 2020 were included. Cumulative associations between outdoor ALAN and metabolic disease were estimated using logistic regression and distributed lagged non-linear models (DLNM) with lags of 0–30 days and stratified analysis by age groups and gender. The results suggest that 26.80% of metabolic disease cases in Ningxia can be attributed to outdoor ALAN and that men, especially in men aged 46–59 years, are more susceptible to lighting. Policymakers need to develop measures and facilities in corresponding areas, such as universal access to indoor blackout curtains. In particular, men should be urged to minimize going outside at night and to develop protective measures specifically for men.
Graphical abstract
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albrecht U (2002) Invited review: regulation of mammalian circadian clock genes. J Appl Physiol 92:1348–1355. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00759.2001
Barre K, Vernet A, Azam C, Le Viol I, Dumont A, Deana T, Vincent S, Challeat S, Kerbiriou C (2022) Landscape composition drives the impacts of artificial light at night on insectivorous bats. Environ Pollut 292:118394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118394
Bennie J, Davies TW, Duffy JP, Inger R, Gaston KJ (2014) Contrasting trends in light pollution across Europe based on satellite observed night time lights. Sci Rep 4:3789. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep03789
Chen SK, Badea TC, Hattar S (2011) Photoentrainment and pupillary light reflex are mediated by distinct populations of ipRGCs. Nature 476:92–95. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10206
Chen Y, Kong D, Fu J, Zhang Y, Zhao Y, Liu Y, Chang Z, Liu Y, Liu X, Xu K, Jiang C, Fan Z (2022) Associations between ambient temperature and adult asthma hospitalizations in Beijing, China: a time-stratified case-crossover study. Respir Res 23:38. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-01960-8
Chew NW, Figtree GA, Kong G, Vernon S, Muthiah M, Ng CH, Chan MY, Loh PH (2022) Hepatic steatosis and advanced fibrosis are independent predictors of mortality in acute myocardial infarction without standard modifiable risk factors. Diabetes Obes Metab 24:2454–2458. https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.14820
Chew NWS, Ng CH, Tan DJH, Kong G, Lin C, Chin YH, Lim WH, Huang DQ, Quek J, Fu CE, Xiao J, Syn N, Foo R, Khoo CM, Wang J-W, Dimitriadis GK, Young DY, Siddiqui MS, Lam CSP et al (2023) The global burden of metabolic disease: data from 2000 to 2019. Cell Metab 35:414–428.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2023.02.003
Collaborators GBDDM (2022) Diabetes mortality and trends before 25 years of age: an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol 10:177–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(21)00349-1
Dehghani MH, Hopke PK, Asghari FB, Mohammadi AA, Yousefi M (2020) The effect of the decreasing level of Urmia Lake on particulate matter trends and attributed health effects in Tabriz. Iran Microchem J 153:104434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2019.104434
Dehghani S, Vali M, Jafarian A, Oskoei V, Maleki Z, Hoseini M (2022) Ecological study of ambient air pollution exposure and mortality of cardiovascular diseases in elderly. Sci Rep 12:21295. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24653-0
Deprato A, Rao H, Durrington H, Maidstone R, Adan A, Navarro JF, Palomar-Cros A, Harding BN, Haldar P, Moitra S, Moitra T, Melenka L, Kogevinas M, Lacy P, Moitra S (2022) The influence of artificial light at night on asthma and allergy, mental health, and cancer outcomes: a systematic scoping review protocol. Int J Environ Res Public Health 19:8522. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148522
Duseja A, Singh SP, Saraswat VA, Acharya SK, Chawla YK, Chowdhury S, Dhiman RK, Jayakumar RV, Madan K, Misra SP, Mishra H, Modi SK, Muruganathan A, Saboo B, Sahay R, Upadhyay R (2015) Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome-position paper of the Indian National Association for the Study of the Liver, Endocrine Society of India, Indian College of Cardiology and Indian Society of Gastroenterology. J Clin Exp Hepatol 5:51–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jceh.2015.02.006
Falchi F, Cinzano P, Duriscoe D, Kyba CC, Elvidge CD, Baugh K, Portnov BA, Rybnikova NA, Furgoni R (2016) The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness. Sci Adv 2:e1600377. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600377
Fonken LK, Nelson RJ (2014) The effects of light at night on circadian clocks and metabolism. Endocr Rev 35:648–670. https://doi.org/10.1210/er.2013-1051
Fonken LK, Workman JL, Walton JC, Weil ZM, Morris JS, Haim A, Nelson RJ (2010) Light at night increases body mass by shifting the time of food intake. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107:18664–18669. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1008734107
Fu SH, Gasparrini A, Rodriguez PS, Jha P (2018) Mortality attributable to hot and cold ambient temperatures in India: a nationally representative case-crossover study. PLoS Med 15:e1002619. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002619
Gasparrini A, Leone M (2014) Attributable risk from distributed lag models. BMC Med Res Methodol 14:55. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-14-55
Golabi P, Paik JM, AlQahtani S, Younossi Y, Tuncer G, Younossi ZM (2021) Burden of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa: data from Global Burden of Disease 2009-2019. J Hepatol 75:795–809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2021.05.022
Grundy SM, Cleeman JI, Daniels SR, Donato KA, Eckel RH, Franklin BA, Gordon DJ, Krauss RM, Savage PJ, Smith SC Jr, Spertus JA, Costa F, American Heart A, National Heart L, Blood I (2005) Diagnosis and management of the metabolic syndrome: an American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Scientific Statement. Circulation 112:2735–2752. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.169404
Haim A, Zubidat AE (2015) Artificial light at night: melatonin as a mediator between the environment and epigenome. Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 370:20140121. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0121
Ishihara A, Park I, Suzuki Y, Yajima K, Cui H, Yanagisawa M, Sano T, Kido J, Tokuyama K (2021) Metabolic responses to polychromatic LED and OLED light at night. Sci Rep 11:12402. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91828-6
James P, Bertrand KA, Hart JE, Schernhammer ES, Tamimi RM, Laden F (2017) Outdoor light at night and breast cancer incidence in the nurses’ health study II. Environ Health Perspect 125:087010. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP935
Kermani M, Jonidi Jafari A, Gholami M, Arfaeinia H, Yousefi M, Shahsavani A, Fanaei F (2021) Spatio-seasonal variation, distribution, levels, and risk assessment of airborne asbestos concentration in the most industrial city of Iran: effect of meteorological factors. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 28:16434–16446. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11941-3
Koen EL, Minnaar C, Roever CL, Boyles JG (2018) Emerging threat of the 21st century lightscape to global biodiversity. Glob Chang Biol 24:2315–2324. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14146
Koo YS, Song JY, Joo EY, Lee HJ, Lee E, Lee SK, Jung KY (2016) Outdoor artificial light at night, obesity, and sleep health: cross-sectional analysis in the KoGES study. Chronobiol Int 33:301–314. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2016.1143480
Kyba CCM, Kuester T, Sánchez de Miguel A, Baugh K, Jechow A, Hölker F, Bennie J, Elvidge CD, Gaston KJ, Guanter L (2017) Artificially lit surface of Earth at night increasing in radiance and extent. Sci Adv 3:e1701528. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701528
Lai KY, Sarkar C, Ni MY, Gallacher J, Webster C (2020) Exposure to light at night (LAN) and risk of obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Environ Res 187:109637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109637
Liu H, Tian Y, Xu Y, Huang Z, Huang C, Hu Y, Zhang J (2017) Association between ambient air pollution and hospitalization for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke in China: a multicity case-crossover study. Environ Pollut 230:234–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.06.057
Liu Y, Ding H, Chang ST, Lu R, Zhong H, Zhao N, Lin TH, Bao Y, Yap L, Xu W, Wang M, Li Y, Qin S, Zhao Y, Geng X, Wang S, Chen E, Yu Z, Chan TC, Liu S (2020) Exposure to air pollution and scarlet fever resurgence in China: a six-year surveillance study. Nat Commun 11:4229. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17987-8
Marangoni LFB, Davies T, Smyth T, Rodriguez A, Hamann M, Duarte C, Pendoley K, Berge J, Maggi E, Levy O (2022) Impacts of artificial light at night in marine ecosystems-a review. Glob Chang Biol 28:5346–5367. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16264
McFadden E, Jones ME, Schoemaker MJ, Ashworth A, Swerdlow AJ (2014) The relationship between obesity and exposure to light at night: cross-sectional analyses of over 100,000 women in the Breakthrough Generations Study. Am J Epidemiol 180:245–250. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwu117
Muscogiuri G, Poggiogalle E, Barrea L, Tarsitano MG, Garifalos F, Liccardi A, Pugliese G, Savastano S, Colao A, Obesity Programs of nutrition ER, Assessment g (2022) Exposure to artificial light at night: a common link for obesity and cancer? Eur J Cancer 173:263–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2022.06.007
Nelson RJ, Chbeir S (2018) Dark matters: effects of light at night on metabolism. Proc Nutr Soc 77:223–229. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665118000198
Ng CH, Wong ZY, Chew NWS, Chan KE, Xiao J, Sayed N, Lim WH, Tan DJH, Loke RWK, Tay PWL, Yong JN, Kong G, Huang DQ, Wang JW, Chan M, Dalakoti M, Tamaki N, Noureddin M, Siddiqui MS et al (2022) Hypertension is prevalent in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and increases all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Front Cardiovasc Med 9:942753. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.942753
Obayashi K, Saeki K, Iwamoto J, Ikada Y, Kurumatani N (2014) Association between light exposure at night and nighttime blood pressure in the elderly independent of nocturnal urinary melatonin excretion. Chronobiol Int 31:779–786. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2014.900501
Obayashi K, Saeki K, Iwamoto J, Okamoto N, Tomioka K, Nezu S, Ikada Y, Kurumatani N (2013) Exposure to light at night, nocturnal urinary melatonin excretion, and obesity/dyslipidemia in the elderly: a cross-sectional analysis of the HEIJO-KYO study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 98:337–344. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2012-2874
Obayashi K, Yamagami Y, Kurumatani N, Saeki K (2020) Bedroom lighting environment and incident diabetes mellitus: a longitudinal study of the HEIJO-KYO cohort. Sleep Med 65:1–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2019.07.006
Paksarian D, Rudolph KE, Stapp EK, Dunster GP, He J, Mennitt D, Hattar S, Casey JA, James P, Merikangas KR (2020) Association of outdoor artificial light at night with mental disorders and sleep patterns among US adolescents. JAMA Psychiatry 77:1266–1275. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.1935
Rybnikova NA, Haim A, Portnov BA (2016) Does artificial light-at-night exposure contribute to the worldwide obesity pandemic? Int J Obes 40:815–823. https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2015.255
Scheer FA, Hilton MF, Mantzoros CS, Shea SA (2009) Adverse metabolic and cardiovascular consequences of circadian misalignment. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:4453–4458. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0808180106
Sethi JK, Hotamisligil GS (2021) Metabolic messengers: tumour necrosis factor. Nat Metab 3:1302–1312. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00470-z
Stevens RG, Zhu Y (2015) Electric light, particularly at night, disrupts human circadian rhythmicity: is that a problem? Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 370:20140120. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0120
Sun S, Cao W, Ge Y, Ran J, Sun F, Zeng Q, Guo M, Huang J, Lee RS, Tian L, Wellenius GA (2021) Outdoor light at night and risk of coronary heart disease among older adults: a prospective cohort study. Eur Heart J 42:822–830. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa846
Tay PWL, Ng CH, Lin SY, Chin YH, Xiao J, Lim WH, Lim SY, Fu CE, Chan KE, Quek J, Tan DJH, Chew N, Syn N, Keitoku T, Tamaki N, Siddiqui MS, Noureddin M, Muthiah M, Huang DQ, Loomba R (2023) Placebo adverse events in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis clinical trials: a pooled analysis of 2,944 participants. Am J Gastroenterol 118:645–653. https://doi.org/10.14309/ajg.0000000000002042
Tian L, Qiu H, Sun S, Lin H (2016) Emergency cardiovascular hospitalization risk attributable to cold temperatures in Hong Kong. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 9:135–142. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.115.002410
Tian Y, Liu H, Si Y, Cao Y, Song J, Li M, Wu Y, Wang X, Xiang X, Juan J, Chen L, Wei C, Gao P, Hu Y (2019) Association between temperature variability and daily hospital admissions for cause-specific cardiovascular disease in urban China: a national time-series study. PLoS Med 16:e1002738. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002738
Toh JZK, Pan XH, Tay PWL, Ng CH, Yong JN, Xiao J, Koh JH, Tan EY, Tan EXX, Dan YY, Loh PH, Foo R, Chew NWS, Sanyal AJ, Muthiah MD, Siddiqui MS (2022) A meta-analysis on the global prevalence, risk factors and screening of coronary heart disease in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 20:2462–2473.e10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2021.09.021
Tossa P, Souques M (2019) Effects of artificial light at night and light pollution on human circadian rhythms. Environnement Risques Santé 18:477–487. https://doi.org/10.1684/ers.2019.1371
Wang Z, Li X, Hu P, Li S, Guan J, Wang B, Yang F, Zhang D (2021) Influence of air pollutants on varicella among adults. Sci Rep 11:21020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00507-z
Wei J, Li Z, Xue W, Sun L, Fan T, Liu L, Su T, Cribb M (2021) The ChinaHighPM(10) dataset: generation, validation, and spatiotemporal variations from 2015 to 2019 across China. Environ Int 146:106290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.106290
Yadav A, Kumar R, Tiwari J, Vaish V, Malik S, Rani S (2022) Effect of artificial light at night on sleep and metabolism in weaver birds. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 29:80422–80435. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20875-x
Yang J, Zhou M, Ou CQ, Yin P, Li M, Tong S, Gasparrini A, Liu X, Li J, Cao L, Wu H, Liu Q (2017) Seasonal variations of temperature-related mortality burden from cardiovascular disease and myocardial infarction in China. Environ Pollut 224:400–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.02.020
Zhang D, Jones RR, Powell-Wiley TM, Jia P, James P, Xiao Q (2020) A large prospective investigation of outdoor light at night and obesity in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Environ Health 19:74. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-020-00628-4
Zheng R, Xin Z, Li M, Wang T, Xu M, Lu J, Dai M, Zhang D, Chen Y, Wang S, Lin H, Wang W, Ning G, Bi Y, Zhao Z, Xu Y (2022) Outdoor light at night in relation to glucose homoeostasis and diabetes in Chinese adults: a national and cross-sectional study of 98,658 participants from 162 study sites. Diabetologia 66:336–345. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-022-05819-x
Acknowledgements
The authors thank all the participants and administrators in this study.
Data and code availability
All the data and code are provided in supplementary.
Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia (no. 2020AAC03159).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Huihui Wang: conceptualization, software, writing — original draft, and formal analysis. Xiaohong Ma: validation, investigation, data curation, and writing — original draft. Zhenfan Yu: conceptualization, methodology, writing — review and editing, visualization. Naifan Hu: validation, investigation, writing — review and editing, visualization. Yurun Du: software, formal analysis, and writing — review and editing, visualization. Xiaoxue He: data curation, writing — review and editing, and visualization. Degong Pan: investigation, writing — review and editing, and visualization. Lining Pu: resources, data curation, writing - review & editing. Xue Zhang: investigation, data curation, and writing — review and editing. Xian Sun: formal analysis, data curation, and visualization. Jiangping Li: conceptualization, methodology, software, resources, writing — review and editing, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Ningxia Medical University (Approval number: 2019-152), and all the participants signed the informed consent at the time of participation.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, ., Ma, X., Yu, Z. et al. Exposure to outdoor artificial light at night increases risk and burden of metabolic disease in Ningxia, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 87517–87526 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28684-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28684-6