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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Radiation and Health

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1651676

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Radiation Research and Applications: Biology, Environment and MedicineView all 16 articles

Association between occupational ionizing radiation exposure duration and the increased risk of dyslipidemia: Evidence from a large group of radiation workers

Provisionally accepted
Meimei  ZhongMeimei Zhong1,2Xiaowen  WangXiaowen Wang3Qifeng  LiQifeng Li2Zhijia  WuZhijia Wu2,4Xiangyuan  HuangXiangyuan Huang1,2Xinyue  LiXinyue Li2,5Yiqing  LianYiqing Lian2Yingyi  PengYingyi Peng2Zhiqiang  LiZhiqiang Li2,5Zhifang  LiuZhifang Liu2Qia  WangQia Wang2Yajun  GongYajun Gong2,4Peixia  HuPeixia Hu1,2Xiaoyong  LiuXiaoyong Liu2Shuming  ZhuShuming Zhu5Shaomin  WuShaomin Wu5Fangfang  ZengFangfang Zeng5Yiru  QinYiru Qin2Qiying  NongQiying Nong2Jinhan  WangJinhan Wang6Yeqing  GuYeqing Gu6Yongshun  HuangYongshun Huang2Wangjian  ZhangWangjian Zhang5*Na  ZhaoNa Zhao2*
  • 1Shanxi Medical University School of Public Health, Taiyuan, China
  • 2Guangdong Province Hospital for Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment, Guangzhou, China
  • 3Peking University School of Public Health, Beijing, China
  • 4Southern Medical University School of Public Health, Guangzhou, China
  • 5Sun Yat-Sen University School of Public Health, Guangzhou, China
  • 6Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Institute of Radiation Medicine, Tianjin, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Although radiation workers' exposure levels consistently remained below established safety thresholds, accumulating evidence demonstrates that chronic low-dose ionizing radiation exposure may still pose significant health risks to humans. We aimed to explore the relationship between the years of low-dose radiation work and dyslipidemia. We collected occupational and physical examination data of 10338 radiation workers from 1200 workplaces during 2019-2020 in Guangdong Province, China. After controlling for social demographic and health behavior confounders, we used a mixed-effects model to assess the association of ionizing radiation exposure duration with blood lipid biomarkers as well as the prevalence of dyslipidemia. We further comprehensively evaluated the modifying effects of various demographic characteristics, health behavior factors, and air pollutant concentrations. We found that participants with prolonged ionizing radiation exposure tended to have 8%-40% higher levels of total cholesterol (TC) compared to those with < 10 years of exposure. The estimates were 9%-23% for triglycerides (TG) and 5%-26% for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Similar disparities were observed for the prevalence of overall dyslipidemia, abnormal TC or TG, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and high β-lipoproteinemia, with odds being 1.51-2.45 times higher in the group with > 30 years of ionizing radiation exposure compared to others. Our estimates further indicated greater effect estimates for prolonged ionizing radiation exposure and the prevalence of lipid abnormalities (P < 0.05) among the females, unmarried ones, and the workers with normal BMI. These findings suggest a deleterious effect of prolonged ionizing radiation exposure on lipid metabolism, with certain groups of workers being particularly vulnerable.

Keywords: Ionizing radiation, Radiation worker, Dyslipidemia, lipid biomarkers, Mixedeffect model

Received: 22 Jun 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Zhong, Wang, Li, Wu, Huang, Li, Lian, Peng, Li, Liu, Wang, Gong, Hu, Liu, Zhu, Wu, Zeng, Qin, Nong, Wang, Gu, Huang, Zhang and Zhao. 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:
Wangjian Zhang, Sun Yat-Sen University School of Public Health, Guangzhou, China
Na Zhao, Guangdong Province Hospital for Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment, Guangzhou, China

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