Dataset Information

Daylight saving time affects European mortality patterns.

ABSTRACT: Daylight saving time (DST) consists in a one-hour advancement of legal time in spring offset by a backward transition of the same magnitude in fall. It creates a minimal circadian misalignment that could disrupt sleep and homoeostasis in susceptible individuals and lead to an increased incidence of pathologies and accidents during the weeks immediately following both transitions. How this shift affects mortality dynamics on a large population scale remains, however, unknown. This study examines the impact of DST on all-cause mortality in 16 European countries for the period 1998-2012. It shows that mortality decreases in spring and increases in fall during the first two weeks following each DST transition. Moreover, the alignment of time data around DST transition dates revealed a septadian mortality pattern (lowest on Sundays, highest on Mondays) that persists all-year round, irrespective of seasonal variations, in men and women aged above 40.

SUBMITTER: Levy L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9659560 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Daylight saving time affects European mortality patterns.

Lévy Laurent L Robine Jean-Marie JM Rey Grégoire G Méndez Turrubiates Raúl Fernando RF Quijal-Zamorano Marcos M Achebak Hicham H Ballester Joan J Rodó Xavier X Herrmann François R FR

Nature communications 20221114 1

Daylight saving time (DST) consists in a one-hour advancement of legal time in spring offset by a backward transition of the same magnitude in fall. It creates a minimal circadian misalignment that could disrupt sleep and homoeostasis in susceptible individuals and lead to an increased incidence of pathologies and accidents during the weeks immediately following both transitions. How this shift affects mortality dynamics on a large population scale remains, however, unknown. This study examines ...[more]

PMID: 36372798

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Project description:ObjectiveGiven the known association of daylight saving time (DST) transitions with increased risk of accidents, heart attack, and stroke, we aimed to determine whether seizures, which are reportedly influenced by sleep and circadian disruption, also increased in frequency following the transition into DST.MethodsUsing Seizure Tracker's self-reported data from 12 401 individuals from 2008-2016, 932 717 seizures were assessed for changes in incidence in relation to DST transitions. Two methods of standardization-z scores and unit-scaled rate ratios (RRs)-were used to compare seizure propensities following DST transitions to other time periods.ResultsAs a percentile relative to all other weeks in a given year, absolute seizure counts in the week of DST fell below the median (DST seizure percentiles mean ± SD: 19.68 ± 16.25, P = 0.01), which was concordant with weekday-specific comparisons. Comparatively, RRs for whole-week (1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-1.10, P = 0.0054) and weekday-to-weekday (RR range 1.04-1.16, all P < 0.001) comparisons suggested a slightly higher incidence of seizures in the DST week compared to all other weeks of the year. However, examining the similar risk of the week preceding and following the DST-transition week revealed no significant weekday-to-weekday differences in seizure incidence, although there was an unexpected, modestly decreased seizure propensity in the DST week relative to the whole week prior (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.91-0.96, P < 0.001).SignificanceDespite expectations that circadian and sleep disruption related to DST transitions would increase the incidence of seizures, we found little substantive evidence for such an association in this large, longitudinal cohort. Although large-scale observational/epidemiologic cohorts can be effective at answering such questions, additional covariates (eg, sleep duration, seizure type, and so on) that may underpin the association were not able available, so the association has not definitively been ruled out.

Dataset Information

Daylight saving time affects European mortality patterns.

Publications

Daylight saving time affects European mortality patterns.

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