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Related Experiment Videos

The birthday: lifeline or deadline?

D P Phillips1, C A Van Voorhees, T E Ruth

  • 1Sociology Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093.

Psychosomatic Medicine
|September 1, 1992
PubMed
Summary

Adults may subtly influence their lifespan around birthdays. Female mortality peaks after their birthday, while male mortality peaks before, suggesting birthdays act as a "lifeline" for women and a "deadline" for men.

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Area of Science:

  • Gerontology
  • Demography
  • Sociology

Background:

  • Mortality patterns around significant life events are not fully understood.
  • The influence of symbolic occasions on human lifespan warrants further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine adult mortality patterns in relation to birthdays.
  • To explore potential sex differences in birthday-associated mortality.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of mortality data from two large adult samples (totaling 2,745,149 individuals).
  • Examination of death frequencies during the weeks surrounding birthdays.
  • Exclusion of alternative explanations like seasonality or surgical deferral.

Main Results:

  • Female mortality significantly increases in the week following birthdays.
  • A dip in female deaths occurs just before birthdays.
  • Male mortality shows a peak shortly before birthdays.

Conclusions:

  • Birthdays may act as a 'lifeline' for females, enabling brief life extension to reach a meaningful occasion.
  • Birthdays may function as a 'deadline' for males, with mortality peaking beforehand.
  • These findings suggest a potential psychological or biological influence of symbolic dates on lifespan.

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