While everyone has been busy planning holidays and Christmas shopping, a team of sociologists have been busy with a macabre research and digging up grim facts and statistics about the holiday season.
The study results were published in Monday’s issue of the medical journal ‘Circulation’. The research team comprised participants from the University of California and Tufts University of Boston.
According to their findings, Christmas, the day after and New Year day, record more death than on any other days of the year. Christmas is at the highest, recording 12.4 percent more deaths than normal.
These findings are based upon a study that covered a 26-year period. According to them more Americans die during these days of great festivity and holiday atmosphere. Causes range from heart attacks and other natural causes and medical emergencies; meaning there are more cases of cardiac and non-cardiac deaths during Christmas and the New Year day.
The reason, they speculate could be because people are far too busy or too festive to go to the hospital over the winter holiday season. The team found a 4.65 percent increase in deaths due to cardiac conditions such as a heart attack. Death from other causes marked around 5 percent increase especially during the fortnight of festivity.
The study did not count deaths from suicide, murder or accidents. However, they did include death due to a ‘cold snap’ after a sudden and extreme drop in temperatures.
Possible reasons include the delay in seeking medical care for symptoms, e.g. experiencing sudden pressure in the chest area. Another “plausible” reason they say is that around the holiday season, clinics, emergency rooms and other healthcare facilities do not operate at peak efficiency, leading to death of the patients. In this respect, the study’s findings match those of another study’s report published during March, which said that patients admitted to hospitals during the winter are more likely to die than during the rest of the year. The reason could be that there are changes in medical staff due to the holidays. Doctors and other medical staff go on leave, leaving the medical care or service compromised.
The study counted more than 42,000 "extra" deaths during the holidays. Out of the 26-year period of the study, only two years did not show this increase. 1973, when oil prices had shot up discouraging people from traveling, and 1981, the year of the great recession, which also must have kept many Americans home.
