No full moon effects.

People like to cite “studies” to support the notion that hospital admissions increase whenever there’s a full moon. I’ve heard both nurses and doctors claim that this is true. I have a deep antipathy towards the mindless repetition of urban legends, and so I quite enjoyed reading “Trauma and the full moon: a waning theory“, a 1989 paper that reviewed a year’s worth of trauma admissions into the hospital and found, unsurprisingly, that there is not a positive correlation between hospital admission rates and the moon’s phase. So nyyaah.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »