Increasing number of deaths occurring during holiday season -

Christmas is the deadliest day of the year, say researchers who examined records of 53 million deaths from natural causes over a 26-year period (1973-2001). Cardiac and non-cardiac deaths peak during Christmas and News Year's, they say, and suggest it may be because people, many senior citizens, are delaying getting medical treatment because of the holidays.

See tips on safety by American Heart Association at bottom of news story.

In Dead-On-Arrival emergency departments and outpatient groups, more cardiac deaths occurred on Dec. 25 than on any other day of the year. The second-largest number of deaths was on Dec. 26, and the third-largest number was on Jan. 1. For patients who survived past the emergency department to be hospitalized, there was no obvious double spike at Christmas and New Year's Day, although there was a general increase during the holiday period and just afterwards.

In the DOA/ED/outpatient group, 4.65 percent more cardiac deaths and 4.99 percent more non-cardiac deaths occurred during the holiday period than would be expected from the season without the holiday effect. For inpatients, the cardiac holiday effect was 1.6 percent more.

The report was published last week in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. It excluded suicides, homicides and accidents.

They compared the number of deaths during the holiday period, which they defined as Dec. 25 to Jan. 7, to the number of deaths that would be expected at that time of year if deaths from natural causes were unaffected by the holidays.

?We found that there is a general tendency for cardiac and non-cardiac deaths to peak during the winter, but above and beyond this seasonal increase, there are additional increases in cardiac and non-cardiac deaths around Christmas and New Year's,? said lead author David P. Phillips, Ph.D., professor, department of sociology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, Calif????. CONTINUES???..www.seniorjournal.com