Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde
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Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd · Dec 1991
[Accidents a matter of chance? The significance of lunar phases and biorhythms in trauma patients].
The belief that supernatural forces influence man's fate appears to be increasing. Many people are convinced that unknown forces can cause injuries. From a multitude of proposed possibilities, we selected two factors that are claimed to affect the incidence of accidents. ⋯ At full moon even slightly fewer patients than expected (24 percent vs 25 percent) were seen at the emergency department. The number of severely injured patients was the same during the four moon phases. The 'critical' biorhythm days were not associated with increased number of accidents, neither for the patients seen at the emergency department, nor for the severely injured patients.
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Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd · Dec 1991
[150 years of life expectancy of Dutch members of parliament; 1848-1989].
To determinate whether the stressful lifestyle of members of parliament (MP) might lead to excess mortality, as suggested in British Medical Journal in 1989, we investigated the mortality and life expectancy of 1589 members of the Dutch parliament over the period 1848-1989. Total mortality (all causes) for members of parliament who had been in function for at least one year (n = 1472) was compared to that of the general population of the Netherlands, adjusted for age, sex and calendar period. ⋯ The total number of deaths was 986 (863 with follow-up after 10 years after entry) and did not exceed the expected number of deaths based on population mortality rates. We conclude that MPs have no higher death risk than those who elected them, although one might have expected a lower death risk because of their social background.