Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo, 315010, China.
Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Hunan, 361000, China.
Environ Pollut. 2019 Apr;247:285-292. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.12.023. Epub 2019 Jan 14.
Previous studies found that mental disorders such as bipolar disorder, seasonal affective disorder and schizophrenia, often show seasonal variability, which usually be attributed to the variations in the number of natural sunlight. However, few studies have been conducted on the acute effects of exposure to sunlight on the onset of these disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the exposure-response relationship between sunshine duration and the hospital admissions for schizophrenia. We obtained data on hospital admissions for schizophrenia from the largest psychiatric hospital in Ningbo, China, during 2012-2016. A Distributed lag non-linear model was used to estimate the exposure-lag-response relationship between sunlight and schizophrenia. We calculated the effects of short and long sunshine duration, defined using the cutoffs at the 1st and 99th sunshine duration percentiles. We detected significant and non-linear associations between sunlight and schizophrenia, and the overall estimated relative risk (RR) for a lag of 0-21 days was 1.45 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.97) and 1.41(95% CI: 0.72, 2.75) for short and long sunshine duration, respectively. The burden of schizophrenia was greater during periods with short sunshine duration than during periods with long sunshine duration, with the AFs of 19.94% (95% CI: 8.65%, 28.24%) and 2.12% (95% CI: -2.70%, 5.57%), respectively. The female and people more than 45 years old were most susceptible to these effects. We repeated our analysis by using global solar radiation as a continuous exposure variable of sunlight intensity in the model, and the result shows that the female and middle-aged and eldly patients were also susceptible to the effects of low levels of global solar radiation. Our findings suggest that there may be a relationship between lack of exposure to sunlight and increased risk of hospital admissions for schizophrenia. Policymakers and doctors should promote further understanding of the health benefits of sunlight and take effective measures to prevent schizophrenia.
先前的研究发现，双相情感障碍、季节性情感障碍和精神分裂症等精神障碍通常表现出季节性变化，这通常归因于自然阳光数量的变化。然而，很少有研究探讨阳光暴露对这些疾病发作的急性影响。本研究旨在评估阳光持续时间与精神分裂症住院之间的暴露-反应关系。我们从中国宁波最大的精神病医院获取了 2012 年至 2016 年期间精神分裂症住院数据。使用分布式滞后非线性模型来估计阳光与精神分裂症之间的暴露-滞后-反应关系。我们计算了短时间和长时间阳光暴露的影响，使用第 1 和第 99 个阳光持续时间百分位数的截止值来定义。我们发现阳光与精神分裂症之间存在显著的非线性关联，0-21 天的滞后期的总体估计相对风险 (RR) 为 1.45(95%CI:1.07,1.97)和 1.41(95%CI:0.72,2.75)，分别对应于短时间和长时间阳光暴露。与长时间阳光暴露相比，短时间阳光暴露期间精神分裂症的负担更大，其 AFs 分别为 19.94% (95%CI:8.65%,28.24%)和 2.12% (95%CI: -2.70%,5.57%)。女性和 45 岁以上的人群更容易受到这些影响。我们在模型中使用全球太阳辐射作为阳光强度的连续暴露变量重复了我们的分析，结果表明，女性和中老年人也容易受到低水平全球太阳辐射的影响。我们的研究结果表明，缺乏阳光暴露与精神分裂症住院风险增加之间可能存在关系。政策制定者和医生应进一步了解阳光对健康的益处，并采取有效措施预防精神分裂症。
