[More accidents due to daylight saving time? A comparative study on the distribution of accidents at different times of day prior to and following the introduction of Central European Summer Time (CEST) (author's transl)].

In the summer of 1980 for the first time clocks in the Federal Republic of Germany were advanced 1 h ahead of Central European Time (CET), which had been in use until then. In a sample of a total of 1070 accident patients, who had accidents on data pairs taken from the months of May 1979 (before the introduction of the so-called Central European Summer Time- CEST) and May 1980, comparable by day of the week, holiday, and weather conditions, and were seen at the University of Heidelberg Dept. of Surgery, a statistically significant increase in accident frequency between 7:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. was found when comparing the years 1979 and 1980 (P less than 0.05). At the same time, the services of the outpatient department were claimed to a greater extent in the evening and night time in 1980 than prior to the introduction of CEST. Since the sample must be considered comparably as to age and sex distribution as well as calendar days and climatic influence, and change in routine due to the adaptation to daylight saving time is discussed as the most probable reason for the observed increase in accidents. The influence of CEST apparently exceeds a short adjustment phase. Further studies are recommended to investigate a possible correlation between daylight saving time and an increased risk of accidents.