I've heard that people tend to die within 3 months before or after their birthday. Has anyone ever tested this notion?-N.S., IND.

This theory has been around for a long time. I, too, was curious, so I kept a record of local obituaries for a year and 5 months. I counted 542 deaths. Of those, only 74 (about 14%) occurred either 3 months before or after the individuals' birth date. I concluded that birth date isn't a reliable predictor. This just confirms my experience in 35 years of work in the field of thanatology. We humans are too complex for predictions about how, when, or where we'll die.