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World J Cardiol. Oct 26, 2026; 18(10): 125761
Published online Oct 26, 2026. doi: 10.4330/wjc.125761
Published online Oct 26, 2026. doi: 10.4330/wjc.125761
Diurnal temperature range, daily mean temperature, and incident cardiovascular disease in older adults: A longitudinal cohort study
Tong-Yu Yang, Department of Immunization Program, Yuhong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenyang 110000, Liaoning Province, China
Tong-Yu Yang, Yue-Hua Zhang, Qiu-Yu Sun, Kai-Juan Wang, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China
Yi-Ran Wang, Henan Children’s Hospital Zhengzhou Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450018, Henan Province, China
Kai-Juan Wang, Henan Key Laboratory of Tumor Epidemiology, International Joint Laboratory of Tumor Biomarker and Molecular Imaging, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Kai-Juan Wang, National Key Laboratory of Metabolism Disorder and Esophageal Cancer Prevention & Treatment, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Yang TY and Wang KJ designed the study; Yang TY conducted the data analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Yang TY, Zhang YH, Sun QY, and Wang YR contributed to statistical analysis and data visualization; Wang KJ supervised the study and provided critical revisions and suggestions; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
AI contribution statement: The authors declare that no AI tools were used in the development or writing of this manuscript and take full responsibility for its integrity, accuracy, and originality.
Supported by the Henan Science and Technology Department, No. 251111313000.
Institutional review board statement: The CHARLS study was approved by the Ethics Review Committee of Peking University (No. IRB00001052-11015).
Informed consent statement: All participants provided written informed consent prior to enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and/or analysed in the current study are available on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) website (https://charls.pku.edu.cn/) and the Chinese Research Data Services Platform (CNRDS,
Corresponding author: Kai-Juan Wang, MD, PhD, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, No. 100 Kexue Avenue, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan Province, China. kjwang@163.com
Received: July 16, 2026
Revised: August 27, 2026
Accepted: October 8, 2026
Published online: October 26, 2026
Processing time: 99 Days and 20.7 Hours
Revised: August 27, 2026
Accepted: October 8, 2026
Published online: October 26, 2026
Processing time: 99 Days and 20.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: While acute temperature extremes are known to affect cardiovascular disease (CVD), the chronic effects of temperature variability and average levels in older adults remain unclear. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study data, we found that higher average exposure to mean diurnal temperature range is associated with increased CVD risk, whereas higher average exposure to mean daily mean temperature is associated with decreased CVD risk. These associations remained generally consistent across prespecified subgroup and sensitivity analyses. These findings suggest that temperature variability and average temperature may be important environmental factors to consider when assessing cardiovascular risk among older adults.