Can Exposure to Outdoor Light Prevent Heart Failure?

Moderate exposure to outdoor light may help prevent heart failure, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“A healthy lifestyle is an important factor for preventing heart failure. However, the association between outdoor light exposure time and heart failure is still unknown,” researchers wrote. In a cohort study, they sought to analyze the link between length of exposure to outdoor light and incidence of heart failure.

Researchers used the UK Biobank to assess 13,789 individuals who were 40 to 70 years of age and free of heart failure at baseline. The mean follow-up time was 12.61 years, and outdoor light exposure time was self-reported at baseline.

Following analysis, researchers found a nonlinear trend between length of exposure to outdoor light and heart failure risk. Cox proportional hazard regression modeling showed that, compared with participants who received an average of 1.0 to 2.5 hours of outdoor light per day, those with <1.0 hours or >2.5 hours had a higher risk of heart failure (<1.0 hours: hazard ratio [HR], 1.27; 95% CI, 1.18-1.36; >2.5 hours: HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.07-1.15).

“We found a J-shaped association between outdoor light exposure time and the risk of incident heart failure, suggesting that moderate exposure to outdoor light may be a prevention strategy for heart failure,” the researchers concluded.