Really? Celiac Disease Is Influenced By Season Of Birth - New York Times (Blog)

[Scott Adams]

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Open Original Shared Link New York Times (blog) But even as awareness of celiac disease grows, its cause remains unclear. One hypothesis is that the season in which a person is born may influence the development of this digestive disorder. Some researchers suspect that those born in the spring and ... Open Original Shared Link TopNews United States Open Original Shared Link

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[L's Mom]

My daughter has a March birthday as does one of her friends (who also has Celiac). And her first winter was a rough winter, illness-wise. Seems like as good as a theory as any.

[Groucho]

On reading the NIHS blurb I have to ask if the folks who did the study are nuts.

they split the calendar year into four quarters, and the percentage of celiacs found in each quarter was 27-25-25-23.

Let's see now, two of the quarters held exactly 1/4 of the celiac birthdays, and the other two quarters were all of TWO PERCENT HIGH OR LOW?

And that's somehow statistically significant, not just float, noise, or other sampling error?

I'd really love to hear some professional statisticians comment about that, because if I was getting numbers like that from a survey I would say at best that the season MIGHT have a VERY SMALL influence. Their conclusion that the season is of real significance? Based on a two percent difference? Aw, come on guys, that's an awfully slim percent.

[ciamarie]

Good catch, Groucho. I was born in winter (Jan.).

[kareng]

I was born in October.

[GottaSki]

While I usually say that any celiac research is a positive thing - I stand corrected - what a waste of research time and money.

Six in my family - three Spring and three Fall

[Darn210]

My daughter is Winter.

27-25-25-23 . . . ??? . . .

[bartfull]

I was born in August, but Mom was a January baby.

But hey, if there is research money out there for the taking, I'm sure these people were glad to take it.

[mushroom]

I was born in March - in the southern hemisphere!!! Does that count?

[Jestgar]

Statistically significant does not necessarily mean biologically relevant. It's a mistake to assume that numbers tell the whole story.

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[Roda]

All three of us are winter babies...

[bartfull]

I was born in March - in the southern hemisphere!!! Does that count?

Only if you are standing on your head.

[mushroom]

Only if you are standing on your head.

I believe that is the way I came out

[Sparks]

One thing to keep in mind is that the percent of babies born each season is NOT constant-- April has the lowest number of births in the US, while September has the most.

If the time of year with the fewest births has the greatest number of celiac births, well, that's interesting...