ArticleThe Lancet regional health. Europe2024
Personal light exposure patterns and incidence of type 2 diabetes: analysis of 13 million hours of light sensor data and 670,000 person-years of prospective observation.
Article in The Lancet regional health. Europe, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Ocular light and optical radiation exposure as a modifiable environmental determinant of health: expert consensus on research gaps and priorities.BMC medicine · 2026Guideline
- Article
- Unlocking the potential of circadian biology for cardiovascular health.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- Circadian Regulation of Glucose Metabolism: Implications for Pathogenesis and Chronotherapy of Type 2 Diabetes.Diabetology · 2026Article
- The Circadian-Light-Hygiene Hypothesis: A Potential Modulator of Fertility and Birthrate Trends.Biology · 2026Review
- D-Box Binding Protein (DBP) as a Circadian Output Regulator: Molecular Mechanisms, Tissue-Specific Functions, and Disease Relevance.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Article
- The impact of environmental pollution and climate change on hypertension: a position paper by the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) Working Group on Environment in Hypertension.Cardiovascular research · 2026Review
- Higher light at night exposure is associated with increased risk of diabetes mellitus: A cross-sectional study of the NHANES database.Medicine · 2026Article
- Temporal and Behaviour-Aware Multimodal Modelling for Hour-Ahead Hypoglycaemia Prediction During Ramadan Fasting in Type 1 Diabetes.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Who Needs Bright Light and When? Mapping the Interactions of Lighting Environments and Individual Differences in Circadian Light Sensitivity.Journal of biological rhythms · 2026Article
- Auxiliary data, quality assurance and quality control for wearable light loggers and optical radiation dosimeters.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2026Article
- Physiologically-relevant light exposure and light behaviour in Switzerland and Malaysia.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Observational
- Article
- Article
- Collecting, detecting, and handling non-wear intervals in longitudinal light exposure data.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Associations between artificial light exposure during pregnancy and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective cohort study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Retinal light perception and biological rhythms: The role of light in sleep and mood from an ophthalmic perspective (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2026Review
- Artificial light exposure at night: A hidden risk factor for type 2 diabetes.Sleep medicine: X · 2025Article
- Light Exposure at Night and Cardiovascular Disease Incidence.JAMA network open · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Light at night disrupts circadian rhythms, and circadian disruption is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Whether personal light exposure predicts diabetes risk has not been demonstrated in a large prospective cohort. We therefore assessed whether personal light exposure patterns predicted risk of incident type 2 diabetes in UK Biobank participants, using ∼13 million hours of light sensor data. Methods: Participants (N = 84,790, age (M ± SD) = 62.3 ± 7.9 years, 58% female) wore light sensors for one week, recording day and night light exposure. Circadian amplitude and phase were modeled from weekly light data. Incident type 2 diabetes was recorded (1997 cases; 7.9 ± 1.2 years follow-up; excluding diabetes cases prior to light-tracking). Risk of incident type 2 diabetes was assessed as a function of day and night light, circadian phase, and circadian amplitude, adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, and polygenic risk. Findings: Compared to people with dark nights (0-50th percentiles), diabetes risk was incrementally higher across brighter night light exposure percentiles (50-70th: multivariable-adjusted HR = 1.29 [1.14-1.46]; 70-90th: 1.39 [1.24-1.57]; and 90-100th: 1.53 [1.32-1.77]). Diabetes risk was higher in people with lower modeled circadian amplitude (aHR = 1.07 [1.03-1.10] per SD), and with early or late circadian phase (aHR range: 1.06-1.26). Night light and polygenic risk independently predicted higher diabetes risk. The difference in diabetes risk between people with bright and dark nights was similar to the difference between people with low and moderate genetic risk. Interpretation: Type 2 diabetes risk was higher in people exposed to brighter night light, and in people exposed to light patterns that may disrupt circadian rhythms. Avoidance of light at night could be a simple and cost-effective recommendation that mitigates risk of diabetes, even in those with high genetic risk. Funding: Australian Government Research Training Program.
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