TY - JOUR
T1 - Joint effects of residential greenness and genetic susceptibility on type 2 diabetes
T2 - a prospective cohort study using statellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
AU - Yu, Yonghua
AU - Fan, Junru
AU - Cao, Qiuyu
AU - Li, Dong
AU - Lin, Hong
AU - Ye, Zhen
AU - Zheng, Ruizhi
AU - Xu, Yu
AU - Xu, Min
AU - Li, Mian
AU - Zhou, Libin
AU - Wang, Shuangyuan
AU - Wang, Tiange
AU - Zhao, Zhiyun
AU - Zheng, Jie
AU - Ning, Guang
AU - Wang, Weiqing
AU - Hu, Ruying
AU - Bi, Yufang
AU - Lu, Jieli
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Higher Education Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PY - 2026/10
Y1 - 2026/10
N2 - Residential greenness has been linked to a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), yet whether genetic susceptibility modifies this association remains unclear. Evidence on gene-environment interaction is limited, mainly cross-sectional, and largely from European-ancestry populations. Prospective data from Chinese populations examining the association between residential greenness and incident T2D, as well as glycemic traits, are scarce. In this study, we included 7861 middle-aged and older Chinese adults (aged ≥ 40 years), and assessed residential greenness using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) statellite imagery, linking it to T2D incidence over a median follow-up of 3.8 years. Genetic susceptibility was assessed in 5389 participants with DNA data using a T2D-specific weighted genetic risk score based on 89 genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms identified in East Asian populations, weighted by published effect estimates. Our results show that higher residential greenness was associated with a 44% reduction in T2D risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.48–0.66), as well as improved insulin sensitivity and β-cell function. Notably, genetic susceptibility significantly modified the association between residential greenness and T2D on both multiplicative (P for interaction = 0.019) and additive scales (relative excess risk due to interaction [RERI] = 0.19), with higher greenness conferring greater relative and absolute risk reductions among individuals at medium and high genetic risk. These findings underscore a protective role of residential greenness against T2D, with stronger effects in those at higher genetic risk, supporting environmental interventions to mitigate genetic predisposition in the prevention of T2D.
AB - Residential greenness has been linked to a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), yet whether genetic susceptibility modifies this association remains unclear. Evidence on gene-environment interaction is limited, mainly cross-sectional, and largely from European-ancestry populations. Prospective data from Chinese populations examining the association between residential greenness and incident T2D, as well as glycemic traits, are scarce. In this study, we included 7861 middle-aged and older Chinese adults (aged ≥ 40 years), and assessed residential greenness using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) statellite imagery, linking it to T2D incidence over a median follow-up of 3.8 years. Genetic susceptibility was assessed in 5389 participants with DNA data using a T2D-specific weighted genetic risk score based on 89 genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms identified in East Asian populations, weighted by published effect estimates. Our results show that higher residential greenness was associated with a 44% reduction in T2D risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.48–0.66), as well as improved insulin sensitivity and β-cell function. Notably, genetic susceptibility significantly modified the association between residential greenness and T2D on both multiplicative (P for interaction = 0.019) and additive scales (relative excess risk due to interaction [RERI] = 0.19), with higher greenness conferring greater relative and absolute risk reductions among individuals at medium and high genetic risk. These findings underscore a protective role of residential greenness against T2D, with stronger effects in those at higher genetic risk, supporting environmental interventions to mitigate genetic predisposition in the prevention of T2D.
KW - Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
KW - gene-environment interaction
KW - genetic susceptibility
KW - residential greenness
KW - type 2 diabetes
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105046052742
U2 - 10.1093/lifemeta/loag019
DO - 10.1093/lifemeta/loag019
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105046052742
SN - 2097-2555
VL - 5
JO - Life Metabolism
JF - Life Metabolism
IS - 5
M1 - loag019
ER -