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 – published online 14/11/2022

Ruizhi Zheng, Zhuojun Xin, Mian Li, Tiange Wang, Min Xu, Jieli Lu, Meng Dai, Di Zhang, Yuhong Chen, Shuangyuan Wang, Hong Lin, Weiqing Wang, Guang Ning, Yufang Bi, Zhiyun Zhao, Yu Xu

Artificial lighting has increased significantly during recent decades and detrimental effects of artificial light at night (LAN) exposure on metabolic health have been reported. However, it is unclear whether exposure to outdoor artificial LAN is associated with glucose homoeostasis and diabetes. In this issue, Zheng and Xin et al (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-022-05819-x) used data from a national survey of the general population in China and report that chronic exposure to outdoor LAN was positively associated with blood glucose levels, insulin resistance and diabetes prevalence and inversely associated with beta cell function. The authors highlight that, considering the acceleration in urbanisation and growing number of domestic migrants arriving in large cities, the number of people with light pollution-related diabetes is projected to increase. They conclude that effective prevention and intervention policies should be developed to protect people from the adverse health effects of light pollution at night.

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