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Happy birthday? An observational study
Gabrielle E Kelly1, Cecily C Kelleher2
1School of Mathematics and Statistics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
|September 29, 2018
Summary
Famous individuals may alter their death timing around their birthday. Some groups show a dip in deaths near their birthday, while others, particularly women, exhibit an opposite trend, suggesting a birthday-deathday link.
Area of Science:
- Biostatistics
- Sociology
- Demography
Background:
- Contradictory findings exist regarding the relationship between birthday and deathday.
- Research has explored whether individuals postpone death until after their birthday.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the phenomenon of death timing relative to birthdays in various groups of famous people.
- To analyze patterns in death dates surrounding birthdays across different professions and achievements.
Main Methods:
- Collected birthday and deathday data for eight groups of famous individuals (e.g., prime ministers, presidents, award winners, Nobel laureates, Wimbledon champions).
- Calculated the difference in days between deathday and birthday for each individual.
- Assessed deviations from a uniform distribution of these differences using goodness-of-fit tests on a circle.
Main Results:
- All studied groups showed departures from uniform death distribution around birthdays.
- British prime ministers, US presidents, Academy Award actors/directors, Nobel laureates, and Wimbledon men exhibited a 'dip' in deaths near their birthday.
- Academy Award female actors and Wimbledon ladies showed a rise in deaths before and after their birthday; Nobel laureates in Science and Literature had a 'dip', unlike other categories.
Conclusions:
- A notable phenomenon occurs with death dates around birthdays.
- While some groups display a reduced death rate near their birthday, others, particularly women, show an increased death rate, indicating a complex relationship.
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