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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1515672
This article is part of the Research Topic Evaluating Public Health Strategies for Climate Change: Risk and Opportunities View all 3 articles
Nonlinear effects of humidex on risk for asthenopia among adults: a national cross-sectional survey in China
Provisionally accepted- Affiliated Eye Hospital to Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
The health effects of ambient humidity and temperature are well-established.However, few studies have investigated the relationship between humidity, temperature, and asthenopia. Our goal was to quantify the impact of humidity and temperature on the likelihood and severity of asthenopia among adults in China.We conducted a national cross-sectional online survey from June 2020 to March 2022, involving 48,000 adults aged 18 and older from 31 provinces in China. City-level meteorological data, including daily average temperature and relative humidity, were obtained from the China Meteorological Data Network. The humidex was used as the exposure indicator. Asthenopia was self-reported using the 17-item Asthenopia Survey Questionnaire. Covariates included age, gender, season, geographic region, presbyopia status, history of eye surgery, average daily duration of near vision activities, daily sleep duration, sleep quality, and frequency of heightened anxiety or depression. The generalized estimation equation model was used to analyze the associations between humidex and asthenopia.Results: Of the 34,303 adults who completed the survey, 38.8% reported asthenopia. Among these, 17.1% were mild, 18.5% were moderate, and 3.2% were severe. The average humidex of the past two weeks (range -28.25 -45.75 °C, mean 25.07 ± 14.26 °C) was positively correlated with the likelihood (OR: 1.005, 95% CI: 1.003 -1.006, P-value <0.001) and severity (OR: 1.004, 95% CI: 1.003 -1.006, P-value <0.001) of asthenopia. The associations between the average humidex of the past one month or one year and asthenopia were consistent with the past two weeks. Additionally, a nonlinear J-shaped relationship was observed between humidex and asthenopia prevalence and severity: low, high, and very high humidex were identified as risk factors for asthenopia.Both high (≥30 °C) and low (<10 °C) humidex levels were associated with higher likelihoods and severity of asthenopia in adults. The influence of meteorological factors such as humidity and temperature on asthenopia should not be overlooked.
Keywords: Humidex, Humidity, temperature, Asthenopia, risk factor
Received: 23 Oct 2024; Accepted: 26 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Chen, Tian, Yang, Lu, Deng and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Na Lin, Affiliated Eye Hospital to Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
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