Sunlight exposure linked to higher and lower disease risks
Over a median follow-up exceeding 13.4 years, outdoor sunlight exposure was associated with 36 of 134 diseases in 281,282 UK Biobank participants.
Limit: Outdoor temperature may partly explain the disease associations attributed to sunlight duration
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational study used data from 281,282 UK Biobank participants, whose average age was 55.81 years; 55.79% were female. Participants reported their summer and winter time outdoors. Researchers averaged the two to estimate daily sunlight exposure. Exposure was associated with 36 diseases after statistical adjustment for testing many associations.
Each additional daily hour was linked to a higher relative risk of melanoma, a skin cancer (hazard ratio 1.052), and a lower relative risk of osteoporosis, which weakens bones (hazard ratio 0.975). A hazard ratio above one indicates higher relative risk; below one indicates lower relative risk. Thirty diseases, including depression, anxiety and sleep disorders, showed U-shaped associations, with higher risks at shorter and longer exposure durations.
Why it matters
Bone and joint diseases are concerns for health in later life. The authors said the findings highlight the potential importance of moderate sunlight exposure and appropriate sun protection.
Caveats
Observational links cannot establish cause and effect, and sunlight exposure was estimated from questionnaires. The authors said the findings need validation in other populations.
From the paper
- Participants
… 1,115,346 incident cases (514,871 in males and 600,457 in females) were identified, and 223,953 participants (99,633 males and 124,320 females) developed at least one of these 134 different diseases; hypertension had the highest incidence (16.2%) …
- Follow-up
After a median follow-up period of over 13.4 years ( Supplementary Table S1 ), 1,115,346 incident cases (514,871 in males and 600,457 in females) were identified, and 223,953 participants (99,633 males and 124,320 females) developed at least one of these 134 different diseases …
- Result
… each additional hour of average sunlight exposure was significantly associated with an increased risk of developing malignant melanoma of the skin [HR = 1.052, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.012–1.094], obesity (1.039, 1.027–1.052), cerebrovascular diseases (1.028, 1.011–1.046) …
- Limitation
First, self-reported sunlight exposure duration may be impacted by recall bias and a lack of measurements of other dimensions of sunlight exposure.
Quoted word for word from the full text on frontiersin.org.
The paper
Xiamen University
Frontiers in Public Health, Oct 26, 2026, Open access, CC BY
Comments
Be the first to comment.