Your birthday may be more important than you think when it comes your health.

　　考虑到健康因素，你的生日可能比你想象的更重要。

　　Scientists at Columbia University used an algorithm to identify “significant associations” between the time a year a person is born and 55 diseases, including ADHD, asthma and heart disease. The new study, which was published in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association, concludes that people born in May have the lowest overall risk for disease, while people born in October have the highest.

　　哥伦比亚大学的科学家们通过某种算法发现生日和55种疾病之间存在明显联系，这些疾病包括小儿多动症、哮喘和心脏病。这一新研究发表在《美国医疗信息学协会杂志》上，它的结论认为，五月出生的人得病几率最低，而十月出生的人几率最高。

　　Though previous research had explored the connection between disease risk and birth season, this study confirmed 39 associations as well as laid out 16 new ones. Researchers looked at more than 1,600 diseases and 1.7 million patients treated in New York between 1985 and 2013 to identify the months most associated with asthma (October and July babies), ADHD (November babies, matching a Swedish study), and nine kinds of heart disease. They plan to replicate the study in other locations, to better identify the environmental factors contributing to such disparities.

　　尽管之前有研究探索了患病风险和出生季节的联系，但此次研究确认了39种，并对新的16种联系加以说明。为了发现出生月份和哮喘(十月和七月的婴儿最易患此病)、小儿多动症(十一月婴儿，和瑞典的一项研究结果一致)以及9种心脏病之间的联系，研究人员对1985至2013年期间在纽约治疗的170万患者以及查过1600种疾病进行分析。他们计划在其他地区重复这一研究，以便更准确的鉴别环境因素在其中起的作用。

　　“It’s important not to get overly nervous about these results because even though we found significant associations the overall disease risk is not that great,” said Nicholas Tatonetti, the study’s senior author and an assistant professor at Columbia University Medical Center. “The risk related to birth month is relatively minor when compared to more influential variables like diet and exercise.”

　　该项研究的主要作者，哥伦比亚大学医学中心的尼古拉斯·塔托内蒂教授表示：“重要的是，不要对这些结果过于紧张。虽然我们发现了这些明显的联系，但总体患病风险并不高。和饮食、锻炼等其他因素相比，出生月份带来的患病风险相对较小。”

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（责任编辑：何莹莹）