ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2019
Birth month, birth season, and overall and cardiovascular disease mortality in US women: prospective cohort study.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Associations between month/season of birth and health outcomes: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Journal of global health · 2026Pooled it
- Understanding the role of vitamin D in osteosarcoma: A narrative review.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- Are season of birth, climate, and parental age predictors of adult temperament, character, anhedonia, suicidality, and self-harm?Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The Health Costs of Cost Sharing.The quarterly journal of economics · 2024Article
- Human life expectancy and season of birth in Taiwan: A retrospective cohort study.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2024Article
- Nontraditional models as research tools: the road not taken.Trends in molecular medicine · 2024Review
- Associations between long-term aircraft noise exposure, cardiovascular disease, and mortality in US cohorts of female nurses.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2023Article
- Education mediating the associations between early life factors and frailty: a cross-sectional study of the UK Biobank.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Reproductive seasonality in the Baka Pygmies, environmental factors and climatic changes.PloS one · 2022Article
- Season of Birth and Cardiovascular Mortality in Atrial Fibrillation: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2021Article
- Impact of birth season on the years of life lost from respiratory diseases in the elderly related to ambient PMEnvironmental health and preventive medicine · 2021Article
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Abstract
objectivesTo evaluate the associations between birth month, birth season, and overall and cardiovascular disease mortality, and to examine the role of familial and socioeconomic factors in these associations.
designProspective cohort study.
settingNurses' Health Study, established in 1976, an ongoing prospective cohort study in the United States.
participantsFemale registered nurses who reported information on date of birth at study enrolment (n=116 911, 1976-2014, followed for 38 years). EXPOSURE: Birth month and astronomical birth season (based on solstices and equinoxes as boundaries of the season categories).
main outcome measuresAge and various multivariable adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association between birth months (using November as the reference), astronomical birth season (using autumn as the reference), and overall and cardiovascular disease specific mortality were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models.
resultsAmong study participants, 43 248 overall deaths were documented during 4 136 364 person years of follow-up since enrolment, including 8360 cardiovascular disease related deaths. In fully adjusted multivariable analyses, no significant association was observed between birth month, birth season, and overall mortality. Compared with women born in November, increased cardiovascular disease mortality was observed among those born from March to July (hazard ratio for March, 1.09, 95% confidence interval 0.98 to 1.21; April, 1.12, 1.00 to 1.24; May, 1.08, 0.98 to 1.20; June, 1.07, 0.96 to 1.19; and July 1.08, 0.98 to 1.20). Those born in April had the highest cardiovascular disease mortality, and those born in December had the lowest (December, 0.95, 0.85 to 1.06). The relative difference between the lowest and highest risk month was 17.89%. Women born in spring (1.10, 1.04 to 1.17) and summer (1.09, 1.03 to 1.16) had a higher cardiovascular disease mortality than women born in the autumn. Adjustment for familial and socioeconomic factors did not change these results. The relative difference between the lowest and highest risk season was 10.00%.
conclusionParticipants born in the spring and summer (especially those born in March-July) had a slight but significant increase in cardiovascular disease specific mortality. However, no seasonal birth month effect was observed among women for overall mortality. Familial and socioeconomic factors did not appear to alter these associations. Further studies are required to confirm these findings and reveal mechanisms of these seasonal birth month effects in cardiovascular disease mortality.
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