Ecotoxicology and environmental safetyFeb 8, 2023

Link between nickel levels in urine and diabetes and blood sugar in the Chinese population

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Mar 28, 2026

Abstract

An odd ratio of 1.74 indicates a higher prevalence of diabetes among adults with the highest urinary nickel concentrations compared to those with the lowest.

Nickel exposure is associated with increased fasting blood glucose levels, with each one-unit increase in nickel linked to a 0.36 mmol/L rise.
A dose-response relationship suggests that higher urinary nickel concentrations are correlated with greater diabetes prevalence and elevated blood glucose.
The association between nickel exposure and diabetes is notably stronger in individuals with lower rice consumption.
Findings are based on data from 10,890 adults aged 18 and older from the China National Human Biomonitoring study conducted in 2017-2018.
Further large-scale prospective studies are needed to confirm these associations.

Simplified

Some epidemiological studies support a relationship between nickel exposure and diabetes in the general population. To address this, we tested the association of nickel exposure with diabetes in 10,890 adults aged ≥ 18 years old from the China National Human Biomonitoring study conducted in 2017-2018. Urinary nickel concentrations and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were measured, and lifestyle and demographic data were collected. Weighted logistic and linear regressions were used to estimate the associations of urinary nickel levels with diabetes prevalence and FBG. Restricted cubic splines (RCS) were used to test for the dose-response relationship. The odd ratio (95% confidence interval [CI]) of diabetes for the highest versus lowest quartiles of urinary nickel concentrations was 1.74 (1.28, 2.36) in the multivariate model (p=0.001). Each one-unit increase in log-transformed urinary nickel concentrations was associated with a 0.36 (0.17, 0.55) mmol/L elevation in FBG. The RCS curves showed a monotonically increasing dose-response relationship of urinary nickel with diabetes as well as FBG levels, and then tended to flatten after about 4.75 μg/L of nickel exposure. The nickel-diabetes association was stronger in individuals with lower than those with higher rice consumption (OR: 2.39 vs. 1.72). Our study supports a positive association between nickel exposure and diabetes prevalence in Chinese adults, especially in individuals with lower rice consumption. Further large-scale prospective studies are needed to validate our findings. trend

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Link between nickel levels in urine and diabetes and blood sugar in the Chinese population

Abstract

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