Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993 TAG: 9301280022
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
JANUARY IS DEADLIEST MONTH FOR AMERICANS
Maybe it's winter weather, maybe it's post-holiday depression, maybe there's no good explanation, but statistics show that more Americans die in January than any other month.An average of 194,000 Americans died each January in the 10 years from 1982 through 1991, according to the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md. March and December tied for the second-highest death rate in that decade, with an average of 187,000 deaths.
So far this month, death has taken such luminaries as retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, actress Audrey Hepburn, jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, dancer Rudolph Nureyev, lyricist Sammy Cahn and baseball Hall-of-Famer Charlie Gehringer.
And in Januarys past, death has claimed the likes of Nelson Rockefeller (1979), gangster Al Capone (1947) and the Roman emperor Caligula (A.D. 41).
Psychiatrists, sociologists and those who care for people who are dying agree that there are many psychological and medical factors that may contribute to the high death rate in January.
They also agree that there is a lot of disagreement on the subject.
"People always try to figure out the unfigurable," said Joseph B. Jenkins III, of the Johnson & Jenkins Funeral Home in Washington. "Some of them are very rational reasons that make sense, and some of them are continuations of superstitions and fallacies. God does his work, and that's it."
It simply could be the weather. Many states get their coldest, harshest weather in January and December and they see their mildest weather in September and June, the months with the fewest deaths, averaging 163,000 and 164,000 respectively.
Nathan Billig, a psychiatrist who is director of the geriatric psychiatry division at Georgetown University Medical Center, said that January's cold weather makes people, especially the elderly, more susceptible to infections, such as flu, that can lead to pneumonia.
The post-holiday period often causes depression, and depression has been shown to weaken the immune system, Billig said. People who are despondent about being elderly, alone or ill are more physically vulnerable, he said.
Billig said depression also can be in the form of Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is depression brought on by the lack of sunlight in winter.
December through March, when days are short and the weather is worst, has the consistently highest death rate.
February, which has the fourth-highest rate behind January, March and December, is deceptively deadly because it has only 28 days. From 1982 through 1991, February averaged 6,321 deaths a day, more than the 6,258 daily average in January.
Keywords:
FATALITY