Spring Daylight Savings Transition Tied to Increase in Cardiovascular Events

THURSDAY, March 14, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Spring daylight saving time (DST) transitions may be associated with a minor increase in adverse cardiovascular event rates, according to a study published online in the February issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes.

Benjamin A. Satterfield, M.D., Ph.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues examined the association of DST transitions with the rates of adverse cardiovascular events using U.S. administrative claims data from roughly 36.1 million individuals.

The researchers found an average increase of 3 and 4 percent in adverse cardiovascular event rates during Monday and Friday of the spring DST transition, respectively. There was less than a 6 percent probability for Monday and Friday and less than a 1 percent probability for the remaining days of this transition being associated with a moderate-to-large increase in the event rates (estimate event rate ratio, >1.10). The probability of any decrease in adverse cardiovascular event rates was estimated to be less than 46 percent for the autumn DST transition, and the probability of a moderate-to-large decrease in the event rates was less than 4 percent across all days. When adjusting by age, results were similar.

“Our findings suggest that DST transitions are unlikely to meaningfully impact the rate of cardiovascular events,” the authors write.

One author disclosed a patent for the identification and quantification of group A Streptococcus nucleic acids.

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