An Association Between Cumulative Exposure To Light At Night And The Prevalence Of Hyperuricemia In Steel Workers

Objectives: Exposure to light at night (LAN) can disturb circadian endocrine and metabolic rhythms. Hyperuricemia (HUA) is an early-onset metabolic disorder. However, it is still not clear whether LAN exposure increases the prevalence of HUA. Material and Methods: The authors used cross-sectional data on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei occupational populations cohort from March-July 2017. A total of 7664 steel workers were finally selected to investigate the relationship between LAN exposure and the prevalence of HUA among steel workers. The authors collected demographic and socio-economic data, as well as information on lifestyle factors, anthropometric measures, and laboratory tests. The restricted cubic spline method was used to analyze the dose-response relationship between cumulative LAN exposure and the prevalence of HUA. Logistic regression analyses were used to fit the relationship between them. Results: The average age of the participants was 43.5 +/- 8.6 years; 7051 (91.7%) of them were males, 2749 (35.9%) reported to suffer from HUA, and 1241 (16.2%) were not exposed to LAN. There was a significant non-linear dose-response relationship between them. After adjustment for the confounding factors, including demographic data, lifestyle factors, etc., the lower LAN exposure was significantly associated with HUA (0-1931.7 days, OR = 1.180, and the 95% CI: 1.000-1.394; 1931.7-4343 days, OR = 1.215, 95% CI: 1.035-1.426). Conclusions: This study revealed that a certain amount of exposure to LAN is independently related to the prevalence of HUA in steel workers in China.