DARIEN, Ill. — A concerning new study is presenting another reason why the United States should do away with daylight saving time (DST) — medical malpractice. Spanning three decades of malpractice claims, researchers from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine reveals that both the severity of medical errors and the decisions on monetary compensations are significantly higher during the months when daylight saving time is in effect, compared to standard time periods.
These latest findings come as millions of Americans and people around the world “spring ahead” on March 10.
Daylight saving time is the practice of setting the clock forward by one hour during the warmer months in order to extend evening daylight. This shift, however, has been criticized for its potential health impacts, as it disrupts the human body’s circadian rhythm — the internal clock that regulates cycles of sleepiness and alertness over a 24-hour period. The study provides new evidence suggesting that this time adjustment may also adversely affect the health care sector.
“The spring daylight saving shift has long been connected to sleepiness, cardiovascular events, and driving accidents, but only recently have we begun to recognize that decision-making processes are also affected at the population level by the spring time shift,” says study principal investigator Dr. Michael Scullin, who has a doctorate in psychological science and is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, in a media release. “The current results add to this literature by showing that an area that one would hope would be immune — medical errors and malpractice litigation — is susceptible, too.”
The study meticulously analyzed 288,432 malpractice claims from the National Practitioner Data Bank, the largest database of its kind in the U.S., spanning from January 1990 to September 2018. It specifically examined the acute effects of the transition into daylight saving time by comparing claims from the week before and after the springtime change.
Additionally, it investigated the chronic impacts by contrasting claims during DST months with those in months observing standard time. States that do not participate in DST, such as Arizona, Hawaii, and Indiana (until April 2006), served as control groups for the study.
Study first author Dr. Chenlu Gao, who has a doctorate in behavioral neuroscience and is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of anesthesia, critical care and pain medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, notes that while the study’s design precludes definitive conclusions about causality, the data strongly suggests an influence of DST on health care outcomes and costs.
“In addition to the acute shift to daylight saving time, it is possible that several months of living under daylight saving time leads to accrued circadian misalignment, which then could affect medical errors and legal evaluations,” explains Dr. Gao. “Our work joins numerous other studies that document the detrimental effects of spring daylight saving time transitions, and the collective evidence should encourage stakeholders and policymakers to reevaluate daylight saving time for the well-being of the general public.”
This research, supported by various grants from prestigious organizations such as the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Alzheimer’s Association, among others, joins a chorus of studies advocating for a reevaluation of daylight saving time. Researchers add that their findings underscore the need for policymakers and stakeholders to consider the well-being of the general public and the potential health risks associated with DST.
The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.