ow can artificial light impact people’s health? Their exposure night may result in problems with glucose control and increased diabetes risk, researchers have now found.

For his or her study, published in Diabetologia, a team of researchers used data from the China disease surveillance study, which included samples of 98,658 participants. Additionally they checked out the participants’ exposure to artificial light at night (LAN).

“Our aim was to estimate the associations of chronic exposure to outdoor LAN with glucose homoeostasis markers and diabetes prevalence based on a national and cross-sectional survey of the final population in China,” the researchers wrote.

Exposure to artificial light has been a serious issue in modern societies. It has disrupted the circadian rhythms of insects and animals and has had impacts on each animal and human health. As an example, rats exposed to artificial LAN developed glucose intolerance, in addition to elevated insulin and blood sugar, researchers said. And in humans, night shift staff who were often exposed to vibrant LAN had disrupted circadian rhythms and better risks for coronary heart disease.

In China, the “rapid urbanization and economic growth” has led to a rise in such lighting and, in turn, increasingly more people find yourself getting exposed to it.

For the study, the participants were recruited from 162 study sites – all of whom had been living there for at the very least six years. Researchers found that chronic exposure to higher-intensity outdoor LAN was “significantly associated” with a 28% increase within the prevalence of diabetes in comparison with areas with the bottom exposures. It was also related to an “increased risk of impaired glucose homeostasis.”

The team estimates some nine million diabetes cases in Chinese adults could also be attributed to exposure to outdoor LAN. Unfortunately, the number could increase as people proceed to maneuver closer to cities and away from the countryside.

“Our findings contribute to the growing evidence that LAN is detrimental to health and point to outdoor LAN as a possible novel risk factor for diabetes,” the researchers wrote.

That is one other example of the detrimental impacts related to the worldwide light pollution issue, which has, amongst its other impacts, affected animals’ habits and migration patterns, and even disrupted their ability to watch the skies.