Los Angeles [US], February 28 : A recent study has examined the impacts of daylight saving time (DST) on heart health and found that the impact is likely to be minor.
In the statewide investigation, researchers used an innovative statistical model to look for links between DST and significant cardiovascular diseases like heart attacks and strokes. The survey included 36,116,951 people aged 18 and older from most states in the United States. (Arizona and Hawaii were excluded since they do not observe DST.)
Researchers concentrated on the week immediately following the spring and autumn DST transitions, when clocks are changed either an hour forward or backwards.
"We looked at five years across the US, and what we found is that it's unlikely that there is a clinically meaningful difference in cardiovascular health due to daylight saving time," said Benjamin Satterfield, MD, PhD, a cardiovascular diseases fellow and lead author of the study.
Researchers found 74,722 adverse cardiovascular events occurred throughout the study during the spring and fall DST transitions. An adverse cardiovascular event was documented when a person was hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of a heart attack, stroke, cardiogenic shock or cardiac arrest.
"These cardiovascular events are common health conditions, so this led to the question of whether this is more than would be expected if this had not followed the daylight saving time transition," said Satterfield.
The observance of daylight saving time varies around the world. Countries that move clocks forward or back one hour may do so on different dates, and some do not observe daylight saving time at all.
In the Mayo Clinic study, the Monday and Friday following the spring DST transition showed a statistically slight increase in the rates of cardiovascular events but when looking at all the data, researchers did not see the rise as clinically significant, he said.
Researchers note that the time change practice was intended to align social and work activities with daylight hours and to conserve energy by using less artificial lighting. They underscore that making changes to the DST system out of concern for heart health is unnecessary.
"When decisions are made about whether to abolish daylight saving time, there is no need to take concerns regarding heart health into account," said Bernard J Gersh, MB, ChB, DPhil, cardiologist and senior author of the study.
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