Q: Is it true that 50 percent of the population will die on a
Monday?
Q: Is it true that 50 percent of the population will die on a Monday?
A: Statistically, no. Mondays are the most popular days for a major heart attack according to a 1996 study by the American Heart Association, but for newborns, weekends are the most deadly time.
The same goes for adults admitted to hospital ICUs in the on the weekend rather than on a weekday.
Some 11.3 percent die on the weekend versus an even 7 percent during the week.
Holidays are another peak time for death in the United States.
A Duke University study released in March 2004 found that patients seen during the two weeks surrounding Christmas and New Years were less likely to be prescribed aspirin or beta blockers on admittance to the hospital, less likely to be prescribed beta blockers when they left, and less likely to receive angioplasty to open clogged arteries while they were admitted.
The result: An increase in mortality from 20.5 percent to 22.5 percent during that time period. It may seem small, but the difference translated into 2,692 more deaths among the 134,609 patients studied.
