ReviewInternational journal of environmental research and public health2020
Insufficient Sun Exposure Has Become a Real Public Health Problem.
Review in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 148 citations in OpenAlex.
- The 2024 Endocrine Society Guideline on Vitamin D: Comprehensive Summary and Critical Appraisal.Nutrients · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and vitamin D status worldwide.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Ultraviolet index levels in Recife, Brazil: an ecological study to identify low-erythemal-risk sunlight exposure windows for infants.Jornal de pediatria · 2026Article
- Natural Light Exposure as a Potential 7th Pillar of Lifestyle Medicine.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2026Article
- Sleep Duration and Sun Exposure in Portuguese Children: Associations With Obesity Indicators.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2026Article
- Sun Exposure and Asthma Prevalence in Spanish Schoolchildren and Adolescents in the Global Asthma Network (GAN) Phase I Study: A Semi-Individual Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Treatment Response to Vitamin DBiomedicines · 2026Article
- Associations between artificial light exposure during pregnancy and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective cohort study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Vitamin D and Atopic Dermatitis-A Mere Correlation or a Real Supportive Treatment Option?Nutrients · 2025Review
- A Case-Control Study of Trichotillomania Patients Using a National Database.Skin appendage disorders · 2025Article
- Biomarkers of aging: from molecules and surrogates to physiology and function.Physiological reviews · 2025Review
- Beneficial health effects of ultraviolet radiation: expert review and conference report.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2025Review
- Pediatric Headache Patients Are at High Risk of Vitamin D Insufficiency.Journal of child neurology · 2025Article
- Do perceptions of the harm of heated tobacco products differ by smoking status? A cross-sectional analysis of the Japan Society and New Tobacco Internet Survey (JASTIS) 2020 in Japan.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency Among Young Elite Soccer Players Living Above 55 Degrees North Latitude and Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Self-Used Preventive Methods.Translational sports medicine · 2025Article
- Are Pediatric Cancer Patients a Risk Group for Vitamin D Deficiency? A Systematic Review.Cancers · 2024Review
- When Do Tumours Develop? Neoplastic Processes Across Different Timescales: Age, Season and Round the Circadian Clock.Evolutionary applications · 2024Review
- Review
- Self-Reported Outdoor Light Exposure Time and Incident Heart Failure.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Long-Term Effects of Microfiltered Seawater and Resistance Training with Elastic Bands on Hepatic Parameters, Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Blood Pressure of Older Women: A 32-Week, Double-Blinded, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 14 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This article aims to alert the medical community and public health authorities to accumulating evidence on health benefits from sun exposure, which suggests that insufficient sun exposure is a significant public health problem. Studies in the past decade indicate that insufficient sun exposure may be responsible for 340,000 deaths in the United States and 480,000 deaths in Europe per year, and an increased incidence of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, autism, asthma, type 1 diabetes and myopia. Vitamin D has long been considered the principal mediator of beneficial effects of sun exposure. However, oral vitamin D supplementation has not been convincingly shown to prevent the above conditions; thus, serum 25(OH)D as an indicator of vitamin D status may be a proxy for and not a mediator of beneficial effects of sun exposure. New candidate mechanisms include the release of nitric oxide from the skin and direct effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) on peripheral blood cells. Collectively, this evidence indicates it would be wise for people living outside the tropics to ensure they expose their skin sufficiently to the sun. To minimize the harms of excessive sun exposure, great care must be taken to avoid sunburn, and sun exposure during high ambient UVR seasons should be obtained incrementally at not more than 5-30 min a day (depending on skin type and UV index), in season-appropriate clothing and with eyes closed or protected by sunglasses that filter UVR.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.