Christmas, New Year Sees More Deaths than any Other Day in the Year

Christmas and New Year see more deaths than any other days of the year, researchers say.

The idea that the holiday season may be a risk factor for early death isn't a new idea. In fact, the trend was first spotted during 1970s.

Since then, many studies have showed a link between Christmas and number of people dying of common diseases such as circulatory and respiratory diseases.

Andrew Meacham, obituary writer at the Tampa Bay Times and president of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers told CNN that his workload increases during the festive season.

"We are always getting a slew of obits this time of year," Meacham said, CNN reported. "I noticed this happened pretty regularly so I did call around to funeral directors to see if they believed there was an uptick too."

In the present study, David P. Phillips of the University of California San Diego sociology and colleagues, wanted to know whether the increase in death rates was due to hospital staff going on vacations.

The team found that staffing issues might be a cause for the rise in deaths during holiday season. His team looked at the number of people who died either in emergency rooms or were considered dead on arrival between the years 1979 and 2004. The data showed that there was a rise in number of people dying during the holiday season, according to CNN.

Phillips said that people who aren't well might be putting off their hospital visits during holidays, leading to health complications.

The Myth of Holiday Suicide

Center for Disease Control and Prevention suicide rates don't peak during the festive season.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center has been tracking media reports on suicide since 2000 and has found that at least 50 percent of them perpetuated the myth. In fact, according to estimates, suicide rates fall during winter and rise during spring-summer.