The relationship between birthday and deathday has been called an artifact due to the continuous depletion of the population with age. However, while the population decreases with age, the death rate increases. These two influences cancel each other at ages seventy-five to eighty-four. The decreasing population dominates at older ages, but the situation is reversed at younger ages. The results account for no more than one-third of the size of the large-sample effects observed among the elderly. There is still a 33 percent excess of deaths resulting from heart disease among married people ages seventy-five and older in the three-day period centered at the birthday.
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