Outdoor light at night and depressive symptoms in male veterans: a multicenter cross-sectional study in China

Previous studies have indicated depression was associated with environmental exposures, but evidence is limited for the association between outdoor light at night (LAN) and depression. This study aims to examine the association between long-term outdoor LAN exposure and depressive symptoms using data from the Chinese Veteran Clinical Research platform. A total of 6445 male veterans were selected from 277 veteran communities in 18 cities of China during 2009-2011. Depressive symptoms were evaluated using the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale. Outdoor LAN was estimated using the Global Radiance Calibrated Nighttime Lights data. The odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals of depressive symptoms at the high level of outdoor LAN exposure against the low level during the 1 years before the investigation was 1.49 (1.15, 1.92) with p-value for trend < 0.01, and those associated with per interquartile range increase in LAN exposure was 1.22 (1.06, 1.40).