Diurnal rhythms of wrist temperature are associated with future disease risk in the UK Biobank

Many chronic disease symptomatologies involve desynchronized sleep-wake cycles, indicative of disrupted biorhythms. This can be interrogated using body temperature rhythms, which have circadian as well as sleep-wake behavior/environmental evoked components. Here, we investigated the association of wrist temperature amplitudes with a future onset of disease in the UK Biobank one year after actigraphy. Among 425 disease conditions (range n = 200-6728) compared to controls (range n = 62, 107-91, 134), a total of 73 (17%) disease phenotypes were significantly associated with decreased amplitudes of wrist temperature (Benjamini-Hochberg FDR q < 0. 05) and 26 (6. 1%) PheCODEs passed a more stringent significance level (Bonferroni-correction α < 0. 05). A two-standard deviation (1. 8° Celsius) lower wrist temperature amplitude corresponded to hazard ratios of 1. 91 (1. 58-2. 31 95% CI) for NAFLD, 1. 69 (1. 53-1. 88) for type 2 diabetes, 1. 25 (1. 14-1. 37) for renal failure, 1. 23 (1. 17-1. 3) for hypertension, and 1. 22 (1. 11-1. 33) for pneumonia (phenome-wide atlas available at http: //bioinf. itmat. upenn. edu/biorhythmₐtlas/). This work suggests peripheral thermoregulation as a digital biomarker.