Heaping in Anniversary Reaction Studies

A Cautionary Note

Bibliographic Data

ID13628981
AuthorsErnest L Abel (Wayne State University, corresponding author), Michael Krüger (0000-0002-4996-7859, Wayne State University), Michael L Kruger (Wayne State University)
Year2007
Volume54
Issue1
Pages59-65
Publication date2007-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0030-2228 • E-ISSN: 1541-3764
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2190/v752-6773-1kmw-3334
PMID17844772
OpenAlexW2069618370
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

Several studies have reported evidence that death is often associated with significant ceremonial events like holidays and birthdays, a phenomenon variously called the "anniversary reaction," "holiday effect," "birthday blues," etc. This article, using data from the social security death index (SSDI), shows how evidence for this phenomenon can arise from an artifact in death records called "death heaping" in which certain dates, usually the 1st or the 15th, are systematically entered for missing data. In this study, each calendar birthday for the year 2003 in the SSDI was paired with either the 14th or 15th calendar day of death. For each pairing, there were more deaths for the 15th than the 14th. A second analysis compared the correspondence between dying on the same day of the month as one's birthday for the first 28 days of the month. A significantly greater number of birth-death combinations occurred for the 1st and 15th day of the month. These results suggest that studies of "anniversary reactions" should conduct preliminary evaluations to consider the possibility that statistically significant relationships do not arise from "death heaping

Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies · Computer Science · History · History and advancements in chemistry · Philosophy and History of Science

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub