1. Daylight Saving Time and Spontaneous Deliveries: A Case–Control Study in Italy
- Author
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Piergiorgio Iannone, Rosaria Cappadona, Alfredo De Giorgi, Sara Puzzarini, Fabio Fabbian, Rosita Verteramo, Pantaleo Greco, Emanuele Di Simone, Roberto Manfredini, María Aurora Rodríguez Borrego, Vanessa Farinelli, and Pablo Jesús López Soto
- Subjects
circadian rhythm ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Time Factors ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,Birth weight ,Statistical difference ,Socio-culturale ,lcsh:Medicine ,Gestational Age ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,nursing ,Pregnancy ,Medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,midwifery ,Retrospective Studies ,LS7_9 ,obstetrics ,Labor, Obstetric ,business.industry ,Obstetrics ,lcsh:R ,Significant difference ,desynchronization ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Case-control study ,chronobiology, circadian rhythm, daylight saving time (DST), desynchronization, midwifery, nursing, obstetrics, spontaneous delivery ,Gestational age ,medicine.disease ,Delivery, Obstetric ,spontaneous delivery ,Italy ,Case-Control Studies ,Cohort ,daylight saving time (DST) ,Female ,business ,chronobiology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Daylight saving time - Abstract
(1) Background: Although the current literature shows that daylight saving time (DST) may play a role in human health and behavior, this topic has been poorly investigated with reference to Obstetrics. The aim of this case&ndash, control study was to evaluate whether DST may influence the number of spontaneous deliveries. (2) Methods: A low-risk pregnancy cohort with spontaneous onset of labor (n = 7415) was analyzed from a single Italian region for the period 2016&ndash, 2018. Primary outcome was the number of spontaneous deliveries. Secondary outcomes were: gestational age at delivery, type and time of delivery, use of analgesia, birth weight, and 5-min Apgar at delivery. We compared the outcomes in the two weeks after DST (cases) to the two weeks before DST (controls). (3) Results: Data showed no significant difference between the number of deliveries occurring before and after DST (Chi-square = 0.546, p = 0.46). Vaginal deliveries at any gestational age showed no statistical difference between the two groups (Chi-square = 0.120, p = 0.73). There were no significant differences in the secondary outcomes, as well. (4) Conclusions: DST has neither a significant impact on the number of deliveries nor on the obstetric variables investigated by this study.
- Published
- 2020