People can have very mixed feelings about their birthday . For some it can be an event which must be marked with the most over-the-top celebrations, while for others it is simply another day in the calendar.
However, one strange study showed that people may be significantly more likely to die on their birthday than on any other day.
The study showed that people may be around 14% more likely to die on their birthday than on any other day.
The scientists involved with the study looked into information on over 2.5 million deaths in Switzerland between the years of 1969 and 2008.
In the results of their study, the scientists wrote, “The overall death excess on the day of birth was 13.8% […]
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“In general, birthdays do not evoke a postponement mechanism but appear to end up in a lethal way more frequently than expected.”
One university doctor says that certain causes of death were more prevalent on people’s birthday.
Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were particularly common causes of death on people’s birthday as well as suicides and accidents, according to Dr Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross, the doctor who led the study .
However, one Professor David Spiegelhalter has been skeptical of the findings.
“If we actually look at what the excess is, it’s 900 deaths in which people have been registered to have the same birth date as death date. That’s not that many out of 2.5 million,” Professor Spiegelhalter told the BBC .
“Now maybe I’m getting sceptical in my old age but this is only to do with matching registrations. The Swiss are, I’m sure, very precise book-keepers. But it’s possible that someone could have a matching birth date and death date in their record when that wasn’t actually the case,” he went on to posit.
Professor Spiegelhalter also disputed the fact that, as some suggested, sick people may be “holding on” until their birthday to die.
“They don’t find any dip before so there’s no holding on and they don’t find any blip after, so there’s no jumping the gun. It’s purely a birthday effect,” Spiegelhalter said of the Swiss studies’ findings.
The figures, if correct, do then suggest that something on people’s birthdays is “killing” them, Spiegelhalter also added.
However, the results are not something to get you fretting about your birthday.
While the results do show a truly bizarre trend, they should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt.
Whatever you enjoy doing on your birthday, just make sure that you try to spend it how you want to do so!
h/t: BBC