People born in the autumn live longer than those born in the spring and are less likely to fall chronically ill when they are older, according to an Austrian scientist. Using census data for more than one million people in Austria, Denmark and Australia, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in the northern German town of Rostock found the month of birth was related to life expectancy over the age of 50. Seasonal differences in what mothers ate during pregnancy, and infections occurring at different times of the year could both have an impact on the health of a new-born baby and could influence its life expectancy in older age. "A mother giving birth in spring spends the last phase of her pregnancy in winter, when she will eat less vitamins than in summer," said Gabriele Doblhammer, one of a team of scientists who carried out the research. "When she stops breast-feeding and starts giving her baby normal food, it's in the hot weeks of summer when babies are prone to infections of the digestive system." In Austria, adults born in autumn (October-December) lived about seven months longer than those born in spring (April-June), and in Denmark adults with birthdays in autumn outlived those born in spring by about four months. In the southern hemisphere, the picture was similar. Adults born in the Australian autumn - the European spring - lived about four months longer than those born in the Australian spring. The study focused on people born at the beginning of the 20th century, using death certificates and census data. Although nutrition at all times of the year has improved since then, the seasonal pattern persists, Doblhammer said.

　　一位奧地利科學家認為，秋天出生的人比生在春天的人活得長，在上了年紀的時候也更不容易得慢性病。馬克斯-普朗克人口研究學院位于德國北部城市羅斯托克，該學院的科學家們通過分析奧地利、丹麥和澳大利亞3國超過100萬的人口普查數據得出結論，人們50歲以后的平均壽命與出生月份之間存在關聯。母親在懷孕期間所吃的東西因季節而有不同，一年里不同時間流行的傳染病也不一樣，兩者都會對新生兒的健康發生影響，并進而影響他們到老年時的平均壽命。進行此項研究的科學家小組成員加布里埃爾-多布哈默說：“春天分娩的母親孕期的最后階段適逢冬季，因此她攝入的維生素要比夏季時少。她停止哺乳開始讓嬰兒正常進食的時候又正好趕上夏天最熱的那幾個星期，這時候嬰兒容易發生消化系統感染。“在奧地利，秋天(10至11月)出生的成人大約要比春天(4至6月)出生的多活7個月，而在丹麥這一差異大約是4個月。南半球的情況也差不多。生于澳洲秋天--歐洲的春天--的成人壽命比春天出生的長大約4個月。研究者們使用死亡證明和人口普查數據作為參考資料，主要對象是20世紀初出生的人。多布哈默說，盡管人們在一年中各個時期的營養狀況與那時相比都已經有所改善，這樣的季節性差異卻依然存在。

　　Remarks：換一個說法，也就是天秤座和天蝎座的人通常比金牛座和雙子座的人長壽，你相信嗎？