Forget about horoscopes – new American research is suggesting that your birth month could be a warning sign of risk for certain diseases.
After scouring medical databases to find a link between diseases and season of birth, Columbia University scientists say that people born in May have the lowest disease risk while people born in October fare the worst.
“This data could help scientists uncover new disease risk factors,” Dr. Nicholas Tatonetti, an assistant professor in biomedical informatics at Columbia, said in a statement.
“It’s important not to get overly nervous about these results because even though we found significant associations, the overall disease risk is not that great. The risk related to birth month is relatively minor when compared to more influential variables like diet and exercise,” Tatonetti said.
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Tatonetti says that previous research on ADHD and asthma and their ties to birth season is what sparked his interest for his study. He and his Columbia team looked at the medical history of about 1.7 million patients treated at the New York Presbyterian Hospital between 1985 and 2013. About 1,700 diseases were studied as the scientists built an algorithm to see if any patterns existed between certain ailments and birth months.
The researchers ruled out more than 1,600 associations. But 39 links that were already suggested in previous studies surfaced along with another 16 new associations. The team carried out statistical tests to make sure that the 55 diseases in which they found a link to birth date didn’t come up by chance alone.
Turns out, asthma risk was greatest for July and October babies. A Danish study on lung disease suggested that peak risk was in the birth months of May to August when Denmark’s sunlight levels are similar to New York’s in July to October.
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The researchers say that around one in 675 occurrences of ADHD could be tied to being born in November in New York. Swedish research came to a similar conclusion between ADHD and November babies.
Birth month was also tied to nine types of heart diseases – March babies were most at risk for atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure and mitral valve disorder.
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Take a look at the team’s findings in this chart. Full findings were published Monday in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association. Read the full findings here.
(Image courtesy Columbia University)
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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