Besides the cards, cake, candles, and gifts, there might be one more unexpected surprise in store for you on your birthday -- a higher risk of dying.
在你生日当天等着你的，除了贺卡/蛋糕，蜡烛和礼物，可能还有一样出乎意料的东西——比往常更高的死亡率。

A new study suggests that men and women are 14 percent more likely to die on their birthday than any other day of the year. This effect was strongest in people aged 60 and older, who were up to 18 percent more likely to die on their birthday.
最新的研究表明，人们在生日当天死亡的概率比平常高出14%。而60岁以上的老人受到的影响最大，概率更是高出了18%。

"We find more deaths than expected solely on birthdays, that is neither in the days before nor after the birthdays," says lead author Dr. Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross, an epidemiologist for the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich.
“我们发现，恰好在生日当天（不是生日的前后几天）会产生出乎想象的死亡数量，” 苏黎士大学社会学院和预防医学院的流行病学家弗拉德塔-阿吉达西克-格罗斯博士如是说。

In this large study, which was published in the Annals of Epidemiology, researchers analyzed data from more than 2.4 million Swiss people who died between 1969 and 2008. They tried to determine if there was any relationship between when people died and the cause compared to their birthdays.
在这项列入流行病年鉴的超大规模课题中，研究人员分析了于1969-2008年段死亡的瑞士人，研究人数超过240万。他们尝试确定人们的死因是否和他们的生日有某些联系。

"We were surprised that our findings apply to specific causes of death," says Ajdacic-Gross. Both violent causes, such as suicides and falls, as well as strokes and cardiovascular deaths were tied to birthdays. "In addition, older people are distinctly more vulnerable than younger people," he adds.
“令人惊讶的是，我们研究的结果适用于各种具体的死亡原因。” 阿吉达西克-格罗斯说，像自杀和跌倒类似的暴力死亡，或是中风，心血管疾病致死都和生日有着一定联系。他补充说，“而且老年人无疑更容易受到生日死亡的侵害。”

Men were more likely to have a violent demise on their birthday, as their chances of suicides spiked by nearly 35 percent and their odds of being accident victims rose by almost 29 percent. Deadly falls in men rose by 44 percent on their birthdays, and, interestingly, the number of falls started to increase about four days before the celebration took place.
男性更易在生日当天暴力死亡，自杀的可能性高出35%，而他们成为交通事故的受害者的几率也提高了29%左右。同时，男性生日时摔倒致死增加了44%的可能性。有趣的是，摔倒致死数量从生日前4天左右开始递增。

When it came to natural causes of deaths, women were at greater risk -- almost 22 percent -- of passing away from a stroke on their birthday. For both ladies and gentleman, there was a nearly 19 percent increase in dying from heart-related reasons.
而女性则在自然死亡上占有更高的比率--100个女性中有22个可能在生日当天中风致死。而不管男性还是女性，由于心脏原因导致死亡的几率增加了近19%。

Scientists also unexpectedly found the risk of dying from cancer jumps by 10.8 percent on birthdays. Cancer deaths also seemed to be higher than usual in the days immediately following a birthday -- a trend not seen for any other cause of death.
科学家还惊讶地发现生日当天由于癌症死亡的数例上升了近10.8%，看来生日比平时更容易导致癌症病发。而这个趋势是其他死亡原因里没有的。

But the question you may be asking is: Why? Is birthday partying to blame? Is it a psychological let-down to realize you're one year older -- and not getting any younger?
但你可能会问：难道是生日party的错吗？是因为心理暗示你又老了一岁，不再年轻？

"We can only speculate on the reasons for the extra deaths on birthdays," points out Ajdacic-Gross. They suspect that birthday-related stress in older people may play a part in the jump in stroke and cardiac deaths.
“我们只能推测生日当天产生的突发死亡原因，”阿吉达西克-格罗斯说。他们估计在老年人中，生日产生的年龄压力对越来越多的中风和心脏病突发有一定影响。

Other studies have suggested that alcohol may be a reason behind the spike in suicides and perhaps even falls.
同时其他研究显示，嗜酒成为生日当天自杀和摔倒的主要元凶。

The Swiss researchers say their results support the theory of an "anniversary reaction" or "birthday blues," meaning that deaths occurred more frequently on a birthday. They suggest this is a more likely explanation than the "death postponement" hypothesis, or that deaths are less likely to take place on birthdays and people might hang on long enough to reach this yearly milestone -- or to see through certain holidays or special occasions.
瑞士研究者称，他们的研究结果很好的诠释了“生日忧郁”或“周年反应”理论，也就是生日更容易导致死亡的发生。他们认为“死亡延迟”假设是不太合理的：该假设认为生日时，人们为了跨过这个年度里程碑，或希望度过某些节日或特殊日子而坚持熬过去，导致死亡率降低。

Some famous people who have passed away on their birthday include the actress Ingrid Bergman, feminist Betty Friedan, and William Shakespeare.
著名人士，如女演员英格丽褒曼，女权主义者贝蒂弗莱顿和大戏剧家莎士比亚都是在生日当天去世的。