Assessment of effects of moon phases on hospital outpatient visits: An observational national study

Objectives: A vast amount of literature has been conducted for investigating the association of different lunar phases with human health; and it has mixed reviews for association and non-association of diseases with lunar phases. This study investigates the existence of any impact of moon phases on humans by exploring the difference in the rate of outpatient visits and type of diseases that prevail in either non-moon or moon phases. Methods: We retrieved dates of non-moon and moon phases for eight years (1st January 2001–31st December 2008) from the timeanddate.com website for Taiwan. The study cohort consisted of 1 million people from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) followed over eight years (1st January 2001–31st December 2008). We used the two-tailed, paired-t-test to compare the significance of difference among outpatient visits for 1229 moon phase days and 1074 non-moon phase days by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes from NHIRD records. Results: We found 58 diseases that showed statistical differences in number of outpatient visits in the non-moon and moon phases. Conclusions: The results of our study identified diseases that have significant variations during different lunar phases (non-moon and moon phases) for outpatient visits in the hospital. In order to fully understand the reality of the pervasive myth of lunar effects on human health, behaviors and diseases, more in-depth research investigations are required for providing comprehensive evidence covering all the factors, such as biological, psychological and environmental aspects.