Assessment of effects of moon phases on hospital outpatient visits: An observational national study

Mohy Uddin; Aldilas Achmad Nursetyo; Usman Iqbal; Phung-Anh Nguyen; Wen-Shan Jian; Yu-Chuan Li; Shabbir Syed-Abdul; Mohy Uddin; Aldilas Achmad Nursetyo; Usman Iqbal; Phung-Anh Nguyen; Wen-Shan Jian; Yu-Chuan Li; Shabbir Syed-Abdul

doi:10.3934/publichealth.2023024

AIMS Public Health

2023, Volume 10, Issue 2: 324-332. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2023024

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Research article

Assessment of effects of moon phases on hospital outpatient visits: An observational national study

1.
Research Quality Management Section, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard - Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
2.
Center for Health Policy Management, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
3.
Health ICT, Department of Health, Tasmania, Australia
4.
Global Health and Health Security Department, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
5.
International Center for Health Information Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan
6.
Clinical Data Center, Office of Data Science, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
7.
Clinical Big Data Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
8.
Research Center of Health Care Industry Data Science, College of Management, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
9.
School of Hospital Health care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan. No 250 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan
10.
Graduate Institute of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan. No 250 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan
11.
Research Center of Cancer Translational Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan

Received: 22 December 2022 Revised: 08 March 2023 Accepted: 12 March 2023 Published: 06 May 2023

Objectives
A vast amount of literature has been conducted for investigating the association of different lunar phases with human health; and it has mixed reviews for association and non-association of diseases with lunar phases. This study investigates the existence of any impact of moon phases on humans by exploring the difference in the rate of outpatient visits and type of diseases that prevail in either non-moon or moon phases.

Methods
We retrieved dates of non-moon and moon phases for eight years (1st January 2001–31st December 2008) from the timeanddate.com website for Taiwan. The study cohort consisted of 1 million people from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) followed over eight years (1st January 2001–31st December 2008). We used the two-tailed, paired-t-test to compare the significance of difference among outpatient visits for 1229 moon phase days and 1074 non-moon phase days by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes from NHIRD records.

Results
We found 58 diseases that showed statistical differences in number of outpatient visits in the non-moon and moon phases.

Conclusions
The results of our study identified diseases that have significant variations during different lunar phases (non-moon and moon phases) for outpatient visits in the hospital. In order to fully understand the reality of the pervasive myth of lunar effects on human health, behaviors and diseases, more in-depth research investigations are required for providing comprehensive evidence covering all the factors, such as biological, psychological and environmental aspects.
- moon phase,
- lunar phase,
- hospital outpatient visit,
- human health,
- observational study
Citation: Mohy Uddin, Aldilas Achmad Nursetyo, Usman Iqbal, Phung-Anh Nguyen, Wen-Shan Jian, Yu-Chuan Li, Shabbir Syed-Abdul. Assessment of effects of moon phases on hospital outpatient visits: An observational national study[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2023, 10(2): 324-332. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2023024

Related Papers:

Abstract

Objectives

A vast amount of literature has been conducted for investigating the association of different lunar phases with human health; and it has mixed reviews for association and non-association of diseases with lunar phases. This study investigates the existence of any impact of moon phases on humans by exploring the difference in the rate of outpatient visits and type of diseases that prevail in either non-moon or moon phases.

Methods

We retrieved dates of non-moon and moon phases for eight years (1st January 2001–31st December 2008) from the timeanddate.com website for Taiwan. The study cohort consisted of 1 million people from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) followed over eight years (1st January 2001–31st December 2008). We used the two-tailed, paired-t-test to compare the significance of difference among outpatient visits for 1229 moon phase days and 1074 non-moon phase days by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes from NHIRD records.

Results

We found 58 diseases that showed statistical differences in number of outpatient visits in the non-moon and moon phases.

Conclusions

The results of our study identified diseases that have significant variations during different lunar phases (non-moon and moon phases) for outpatient visits in the hospital. In order to fully understand the reality of the pervasive myth of lunar effects on human health, behaviors and diseases, more in-depth research investigations are required for providing comprehensive evidence covering all the factors, such as biological, psychological and environmental aspects.

Acknowledgments

Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

References

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