AnorexiaPrevious studies of anorexia and birth month were too small to be of much use. You need a lot of cases to detect differences between patients and controls if season increases risk marginally. In this study, the researchers combined the results from several different UK studies, and then used some fancy statistical techniques such as "harmonic and spectral analysis" as opposed to the traditional chi squared test to wring as much out of the data as they could.All told, 1293 cases of anorexia nervosa were compared to births in the general population from 1950-1980. The results are intriguing!Here is the pertinent graph (reproduced here with permission) and the source linked at the British Journal of Psychiatry.You will see there is a bit of a spike of anorexia cases for people born in the springtime, and a yearly nadir in October.
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