Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on July 28, 2005
Journal of Public Health 2005 27(4):316-317; doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdi047
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Year-round daylight saving and serious or fatal road traffic injuries in children in the north-east of England
Jean Adams
Martin White
Peter Heywood
Jean Adams, Research Associate, Martin White, Senior Lecturer, Peter Heywood, Honorary Lecturer and Specialist Registrar, School of Population and Health Sciences, The Medical School, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH
Address correspondence to Jean Adams. E-mail: j.m.adams{at}ncl.ac.uk
Background It has been suggested that year-round daylight saving would reduce road traffic injuries.
Methods and results Using 15 years of police data from north-east England, we estimate that 6.9 (95 per cent CI 1.512.6) fewer serious or fatal road traffic injuries to child pedestrians would have occurred in this area over this period had year-round daylight saving operated (equivalent to 0.5 per year).
Conclusion The results suggest that operating daylight saving year-round would have a small but tangible effect on the number of serious and fatal road traffic injuries in children in this area. Further work is required to assess the community wide impact of year round daylight saving.
Keywords: children, daylight saving, road traffic injuries, road traffic accidents