生日不一定快樂：生日當天死亡風險大！

Besides the cards, cake, candles, and gifts, there might be one more unexpected surprise in store for you on your birthday -- a higher risk of dying.
在你生日當天等着你的，除了賀卡/蛋糕，蠟燭和禮物，可能還有一樣出乎意料的東西——比往常更高的死亡率。

A new study suggests that men and women are 14 percent more likely to die on their birthday than any other day of the year. This effect was strongest in people aged 60 and older, who were up to 18 percent more likely to die on their birthday.
最新的研究表明，人們在生日當天死亡的概率比平常高出14%。而60歲以上的老人受到的影響最大，概率更是高出了18%。

"We find more deaths than expected solely on birthdays, that is neither in the days before nor after the birthdays," says lead author Dr. Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross, an epidemiologist for the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich.
“我們發現，恰好在生日當天（不是生日的前後幾天）會產生出乎想象的死亡數量，” 蘇黎士大學社會學院和預防醫學院的流行病學家弗拉德塔-阿吉達西克-格羅斯博士如是說。

In this large study, which was published in the Annals of Epidemiology, researchers analyzed data from more than 2.4 million Swiss people who died between 1969 and 2008. They tried to determine if there was any relationship between when people died and the cause compared to their birthdays.
在這項列入流行病年鑑的超大規模課題中，研究人員分析了於1969-2008年段死亡的瑞士人，研究人數超過240萬。他們嘗試確定人們的死因是否和他們的生日有某些聯繫。

"We were surprised that our findings apply to specific causes of death," says Ajdacic-Gross. Both violent causes, such as suicides and falls, as well as strokes and cardiovascular deaths were tied to birthdays. "In addition, older people are distinctly more vulnerable than younger people," he adds.
“令人驚訝的是，我們研究的結果適用於各種具體的死亡原因。” 阿吉達西克-格羅斯說，像自殺和跌倒類似的暴力死亡，或是中風，心血管疾病致死都和生日有着一定聯繫。他補充說，“而且老年人無疑更容易受到生日死亡的侵害。”

Men were more likely to have a violent demise on their birthday, as their chances of suicides spiked by nearly 35 percent and their odds of being accident victims rose by almost 29 percent. Deadly falls in men rose by 44 percent on their birthdays, and, interestingly, the number of falls started to increase about four days before the celebration took place.
男性更易在生日當天暴力死亡，自殺的可能性高出35%，而他們成爲交通事故的受害者的機率也提高了29%左右。同時，男性生日時摔倒致死增加了44%的可能性。有趣的是，摔倒致死數量從生日前4天左右開始遞增。

When it came to natural causes of deaths, women were at greater risk -- almost 22 percent -- of passing away from a stroke on their birthday. For both ladies and gentleman, there was a nearly 19 percent increase in dying from heart-related reasons.
而女性則在自然死亡上佔有更高的比率--100個女性中有22個可能在生日當天中風致死。而不管男性還是女性，由於心臟原因導致死亡的機率增加了近19%。Scientists also unexpectedly found the risk of dying from cancer jumps by 10.8 percent on birthdays. Cancer deaths also seemed to be higher than usual in the days immediately following a birthday -- a trend not seen for any other cause of death.
科學家還驚訝地發現生日當天由於癌症死亡的數例上升了近10.8%，看來生日比平時更容易導致癌症病發。而這個趨勢是其他死亡原因裏沒有的。

But the question you may be asking is: Why? Is birthday partying to blame? Is it a psychological let-down to realize you're one year older -- and not getting any younger?
但你可能會問：難道是生日party的錯嗎？是因爲心理暗示你又老了一歲，不再年輕？

"We can only speculate on the reasons for the extra deaths on birthdays," points out Ajdacic-Gross. They suspect that birthday-related stress in older people may play a part in the jump in stroke and cardiac deaths.
“我們只能推測生日當天產生的突發死亡原因，”阿吉達西克-格羅斯說。他們估計在老年人中，生日產生的年齡壓力對越來越多的中風和心臟病突發有一定影響。

Other studies have suggested that alcohol may be a reason behind the spike in suicides and perhaps even falls.
同時其他研究顯示，嗜酒成爲生日當天自殺和摔倒的主要元兇。

The Swiss researchers say their results support the theory of an "anniversary reaction" or "birthday blues," meaning that deaths occurred more frequently on a birthday. They suggest this is a more likely explanation than the "death postponement" hypothesis, or that deaths are less likely to take place on birthdays and people might hang on long enough to reach this yearly milestone -- or to see through certain holidays or special occasions.
瑞士研究者稱，他們的研究結果很好的詮釋了“生日憂鬱”或“週年反應”理論，也就是生日更容易導致死亡的發生。他們認爲“死亡延遲”假設是不太合理的：該假設認爲生日時，人們爲了跨過這個年度里程碑，或希望度過某些節日或特殊日子而堅持熬過去，導致死亡率降低。

Some famous people who have passed away on their birthday include the actress Ingrid Bergman, feminist Betty Friedan, and William Shakespeare.
著名人士，如女演員英格麗褒曼，女權主義者貝蒂弗萊頓和大戲劇家莎士比亞都是在生日當天去世的。