Drop In Mortality Rates After Summer Vacation

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Article Date: 21 Sep 2009 - 12:00 PDT

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A new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) reports that mortality rates in several Mediterranean countries decline in September. This is in part due to environmental factors but it is possibly associated to summer vacations.

Official statistics for Greece, Cyprus, Italy, France and Spain were evaluated in the study.

An increased risk of death is linked to extreme heat and cold.

Dr. Matthew Falagas of the Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences in Greece and coauthors write: "We speculate that another factor accounting for the lower mortality observed in September in the Mediterranean countries is the preceding summer vacation." The researchers suggest that the physiological effect of increased vitamin D synthesis combined with the stress-relieving benefits of time off may contribute to these lower mortality figures.

Findings show that in North America and Sweden, August is the lowest month for mortality. In Japan it is July. In Australia, the lowest month is March which is the counterpart to September in the southern hemisphere.

The authors indicate there is a need for additional research to clarify the possible causes of these drops in mortality rates.

"Seasonality of mortality: the September phenomenon in Mediterranean countries"
Matthew E. Falagas MD DSc, Drosos E. Karageorgopoulos MD, Lambros I. Moraitis,Evridiki K. Vouloumanou MD, Nikos Roussos MD, George Peppas MD, Petros I. Rafailidis MD MSc
CMAJ 2009. DOI:10.1503/cmaj.090694
Canadian Medical Association Journal

Written by Stephanie Brunner (B.A.)
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