How long did their hearts go on?
黑料不打烊 researchers complete epidemiologic study of Titanic survivors
An unusual study on survivors of the Titanic, published in today's British Medical Journal and conducted by 黑料不打烊 University researchers, has found that passengers who escaped from the sunken ship did not have shorter life spans than the general population.
Several studies have examined post-traumatic stress in people who survive disasters but few have looked at longevity. The 1997 film Titanic followed one fictional character, yet the longevity of the actual survivors, as a group, has not been studied.
Did the survivors of the sinking of the Titanic have shortened life spans? Or did they outlive those for whom 14-15 April 1912 was a less personal night to remember?
James A Hanley, a professor at 黑料不打烊's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, teamed up with graduate students to find the answer. They limited their study to passengers and used data from biographies listed in Encyclopedia Titanica, a website that claims to have "among the most accurate passenger and crew lists ever compiled."
Of the 500 passengers listed as survivors 435 were traced. The researchers calculated the proportion alive at each anniversary of the sinking.
The largest groups travelling in first and second class were North American or British; most of those in third class were emigrating from Europe to the United States. Unable to find a comparison group with the same mix of backgrounds and selection factors, the researchers created two "next best" comparison groups from available data.
They calculated what proportions of an age and sex matched group of white Americans alive in 1912 would be alive at each anniversary. To do so, they converted current (cross sectional) life tables for the years 1912-2002 into cohort life tables.
They created a second comparison group from life table data for Sweden, which was already in cohort form. Longevity differences were assessed by log rank tests. The survival of the 435 passengers was slightly, but not significantly, longer than that of the two comparison groups. To read the complete study, please consult .
