Association of exposure to artificial light at night during adolescence with blood pressure in early adulthood

ABSTRACT

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is related to various diseases, such as cancer, obesity, and coronary heart disease. However, its impact on blood pressure in adolescents is not well understood. To investigate this, we conducted a cross-sectional study with a nationwide sample of college students in China, who were freshmen from four disperse universities during Sep. and Oct. 2018. Mean levels of ALAN at participants’ residential addresses during 2013–2018 were estimated using time-varying satellite data. The association of the 6-y average of ALAN with blood pressure was estimated by using generalized linear mixed models. A total of 17 046 participants (18.2 ± 0.7 y of age, 46.79% female) from 2,412 counties and cities were included in the final analysis. After a full adjustment for potential confounders, ALAN was positively associated with systolic blood pressure (β = 0.20, p = 0.032) and pulse pressure (β = 0.28, p  = 0.001), but there was no association between ALAN and diastolic blood pressure (β = -0.08, p = 0.213). In the sensitivity analysis, the results consistent with the main analysis were observed. The blood pressure of males and those with a BMI ≤24 kg/m² were more susceptible to ALAN exposure. Our findings highlight the importance of ALAN management for blood pressure control, particularly among male and normal-weight individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Nighttime light
• blood pressure
• adolescence
• young adults

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the following dermatologists and investigators who participated in the field survey (in order of family name).

Central South University: Lei Cai, Duling Cao, Qin Cao, Chao Chen, Liping Chen, Menglin Chen, Mengting Chen, Xiang Chen, Qing Deng, Xin Gao, Yihuan Gong, Jia Guo, Yeye Guo, Rui Hu, Xin Hu, Chuchu Huang, Huining Huang, Kai Huang, Xiaoyan Huang, Yuzhou Huang, Danrong Jing, Xinwei Kuang, Li Lei, Jia Li, Jiaorui Li, Jie Li, Keke Li, Peiyao Li, Yajia Li, Yayun Li, Yangfan Li, Dan Liu, Dihui Liu, Fangfen Liu, Nian Liu, Panoan Liu, Runqiu Liu, Hui Lu, Wenhua Lu, Yan Luo, Zhongling Luo, Manyun Mao, Mengping Mao, Yuyan Ouyang, Shiyao Pei, Qunshi Qin, Ke Sha, Lirong Tan, Ling Tang, Ni Tang, Yan Tang, Ben Wang, Yaling Wang, Tianhao Wu, Yun Xie, Siyu Yan, Sha Yan, Bei Yan, Xizhao Yang, Lin Ye, Hu Yuan, Taolin Yu, Yan Yuan, Yi Yu, Rui Zhai, Jianghua Zhang, Jianglin Zhang, Mi Zhang, Xingyu Zhang, Zhibao Zhang, Yaqian Zhao, Kuangbiao Zhong, Lei Zhou, Youyou Zhou, Zhe Zhou, and Susi Zhu.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology: Xiangjie An, Siqi Da, Yaqi Dong, Yangxue Fu, Lixie Gao, Han Han, Biling Jiang, Jiajia Lan, Jun Li, Xiaonan Li, Yan Li, Liquan Liu, Yuchen Lou, Pu Meng, Yingli Nie, Gong Rao, Shanshan Sha, Xingyu Su, Huinan Suo, Juan Tao, Rongying Wang, Jun Xie, Yuanxiang Yi, Jia Zhang, Qiao Zhang, Li Zhu, Yanming Zhu.

Xiamen University: Zhiming Cai, Lina Chen, Xiaozhu Fu, Hongjun Jiang, Guihua Luo, Shijun Shan, Xiaohui Wang, Jianbing Xiahou, and Binxiang Zheng.

People’s Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: Jianxia Chen, Xiaomin Chen, Xinqi Chen, Li Dai, Yanyan Feng, Fanhe Jiang, Lan Jin, Xiaojing Kang, Qingyu Ma, Qun Shi, Hongbo Tang, Fang Wang, Zhen Wang, Xiujuan Wu, Kunjie Zhang, and Yu Zhang.

Xinjiang Medical University: Huagui Li, Jianguang Li, and Lei Shi

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data used during the study are available from the corresponding author by reasonable request.

Ethics of approval statement

This study was approved by the medical ethics committee of Xiangya Hospital, Central South University (approval# 201806877).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China “Precision Medicine Initiative” [#2016YFC0900802], the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities [111 Project, #B20017], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [82170437] and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities of Central South University [2022ZZTS0960]. The funders did not participate in this study.