'Tis the season for stats and surveys – or so it seems. Here's a roundup of research to make you merry, wary, and wise.
MERRY: MALL SANTA MYSTERY SOLVED
Researchers at the City University of New York have discovered that while 80 percent of children couldn't care less about seeing Santa, 87 percent of parents and guardians are excited and happy about the Santa visit.
MERRY: CANADA'S HAPPIEST GUY?
"Santa Claus's apparent weight gain, much chronicled in the popular media, raises the question of whether his jolly persona could be at risk. We investigate why Santa remains jolly, even though he is becoming obese, and what factors could be keeping him upbeat," note authors Cora L Craig, Adrian Bauman, Philayrath Phongsavan, Thomas Stephens, and Stephen J. Harris in "Jolly, Fit, and Fat: Should We Be Singing the 'Santa Too Fat Blues'" – an article from the December 5, 2006, issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
MERRY: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS DEPT.
Next time you start thinking about how tough you've got it, compare your lot in life to that of the reindeer herders of Sweden. According to a recent study published in Occupational Medicine, reindeer herders face an above-average risk of experiencing injuries to the hands and wrists as well as the lower back, as compared to workers in other blue-collar professions. And without reindeer herders, where would we be at this time of year?
WARY: I HEART HOLIDAYS
A report published in the medical journal Congestive Heart Failure revealed that there is a 33 percent increase in the number of cases of patients seeking treatment for congestive heart failure in the four days following Christmas and a 30 percent increase in the four days following New Year's. Previous studies have indicated that the spike might be the result of patients delaying treatment on the days leading up to the holiday as well as on the holiday itself.
WARY: PATHOGEN PARANOIA
'Tis the season to be paranoid....about people coughing and sneezing on one another in checkout lines at the grocery store and in check-in lines at the airport, the potential for food poisoning from undercooked turkeys. One particularly memorable study conducted at the University of Arizona found that the handles on shopping carts make excellent breeding grounds for miscellaneous human byproducts like blood, urine, and fecal bacteria.
WISE: MALL MALAISE
Shoppers appear to be suffering from an acute case of mall malaise. A survey conducted by The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania indicates that 80 percent of shoppers encountered at least one problem during a shopping trip to the mall in the past month. The top four complaints? A lack of anything new at the mall, a limited selection of restaurants, too many stores carrying the same merchandise, and parking hassles.
WISE: HOLIDAY KISS OFF
60 percent of Canadian partygoers confess that they deliberately steer clear of strangers when the mistletoe is being passed around or it's time to ring in New Year's Eve. The reason? To avoid a sloppy kiss from a stranger whose bad breath could wilt a plastic poinsettia. And speaking of sloppy kisses and bad breath, those are considered major breaches of social kissing etiquette according to 32 percent and 49 percent of Canadians respectively, according to a recent Philips Electronics survey
WISE: STRESS-WISE
Here's some shocking news. Our stress-o-meters are in overdrive. According to a recent Harris/Decima survey. 72 percent of Canadians reported feeling stressed by the rising costs of food and gas, 62 percent by general financial concerns, and 54 percent by the stock market, 42 percent by job worries, and 37 percent of Canadians by the stress of raising children. So where do the most stressed out Canadians live? You're right! People living in Ontario are walking stress balls (59 percent report feeling "somewhat to extremely stressed" in a typical week) while Quebecers are the least stressed, with just 39 percent adopting the Bay Street approach to managing stress.
