ArticleEuropean journal of public health2024
Daylight saving time was not associated with a change in suicide rates in Austria, Switzerland and Sweden.
Article in European journal of public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of epidemiological studies into daylight-saving time & health identifying beneficial & adverse effects.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Pooled it
- Acute effects of daylight saving time clock changes on mental and physical health in England: population based retrospective cohort study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Mental health status of the European population and its determinants: A cross-national comparison study.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSome studies have reported an increase in suicides after the start of daylight saving time (DST), but the evidence is mixed and more research about proposed mechanisms (disrupted sleep, changing light exposure) is needed.
methodsIn our preregistered study, we analyzed change in suicide rates in the 2 weeks before/after DST, based on data between 1980 and 2022 from Austria, Switzerland and Sweden, using Poisson regression models and changepoint analyses. To explore the impact of disrupted sleep, we repeated the analysis for retired people who are likely less bound to DST, and for younger people. To explore the effect of changed daylight exposure, we repeated the analysis for northern and southern regions because twilight and daylight exposure varies by latitude.
resultsSuicide rates did not significantly increase after the start of DST (adjusted incidence rate ratio IRR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.91-1.06, P = 0.66, n = 13 362 suicides) or after DST ended (adjusted IRR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.91-1.07, P = 0.76, n = 12 319 suicides). There were no statistically significant findings among younger or older subgroups and also not in Sweden and Austria/Switzerland. No changepoints were detected.
conclusionsThere were no significant changes in suicide rates associated with DST and no clear evidence to support proposed mechanisms (light exposure, disruption of sleep). Our study is one of the largest and was adequately powered. Nonetheless, even larger studies to detect smaller effects could be important to inform the debate about harms and benefits of DST.
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