A new study has found a strong link between Doctor Who episodes aired during the festive period (between Christmas and New Year) and reduced mortality the following year. The findings suggest that seeing a caring doctor may encourage health-seeking behaviors.
In 1963, the day after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, the British BBC aired the first episode of the science fiction series Doctor Who, which has since become a global cultural phenomenon beloved by millions.
Fans of the show know that a Time Lord capable of time travel is not a doctor. In fact, "Doctor Who" is the title they chose for themselves, and the show has never explicitly confirmed which subject they hold PhDs in. Nonetheless, a new study examines the association between Doctor Who episodes aired between Christmas and New Year: the agency of doctors working during the festive period and its impact on mortality.
Many doctors provide medical services in the UK over the festive period, but the impact on people's health is unclear. In fact, Doctor Who has been on the air for 60 years, and Richard Riley, professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham and author of the study, conducted a (somewhat fitting) time series analysis to investigate the correlation between airings over the Christmas period and airings over the Christmas period. Subsequent annual mortality rate.
It's unclear whether Reilly took the swinging, time-pressed thing as part of his research, which he named TARDIS, which stands for Television Festival Broadcasting and the Association of Sixty-Year Mortality in Doctor Who, in honor of the Doctor's preferred method of time-travelling.
Researchers from the Office for National Statistics analyzed the association between episodes of Doctor Who aired from December 24 to January 1 between 1963 and 2022 - as a potential proxy for the work of an individual doctor during that period - and age-standardized mortality rates in the subsequent year.
The study only looked at TV series since 1963 and did not include TV spin-offs, books, audiobooks and comics. During this period, new episodes of Doctor Who aired over 31 festive periods, 14 of which aired on Christmas Day. Since its relaunch in 2005, a Christmas special has aired every year.
Riley found a link between broadcasting during the holidays and subsequent lower annual mortality. The Christmas episodes would reduce deaths by around six per 10,000 person-years in England and Wales and four per 10,000 person-years in the UK as a whole. When Doctor Who was shown continuously over the Christmas and New Year period (mainly Christmas) between 2005 and 2019, the reduction in deaths was even higher, with an average of 7 fewer deaths per 10,000 people per year in England and Wales and an average of 6 fewer deaths per 10,000 people in the UK over the years.
Riley's analysis takes into account changes in population disparities over time, and he suggests that watching doctors provide care to people on small screens may encourage health-seeking behaviors.
The researcher noted that his study did not establish cause and effect and that his findings were related to a unique doctor, so it may not apply to all doctors on Earth, a planet located at galactic coordinates 58044684884, in sector 8023 of the third quadrant. But, he said, the findings reinforce why health care professionals and the delivery of care should not be taken for granted.
"If this is the impact one doctor can have while working during the holidays, imagine how great the impact that will be for all the health care workers out there," Riley said.
Riley is planning a follow-up study called ADRIC (Adverse Reactions in Children), named after the Fourth and Fifth Doctor's math-nerd companions, to examine the effects of excessive viewing of Doctor Who. Unfortunately, all requests for funding for the research so far have been denied.
The study was published in the British Medical Journal.