How your birth month affects what disease you'll get

The time of year you are born affects your body's ability to fend off certain diseases (Getty Images)

Bad news if you are an October baby because according to new research you are at a higher risk of illness than if you were born in any other month.

Researchers at Columbia University in New York have found evidence of a small correlation between the month of your birth and your risk of developing certain illnesses.

Using an algorithm they developed, the scientists looked at the medical record of nearly two million New Yorkers born in the Columbia University Medical Center between 1900 and 2000 to study the incidents of 1,688 different conditions, for a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

They found that people in October were the most likely to suffer from a range of different conditions such as chest infections but babies born in May and August had the lowest risk of disease.

Dr Nicholas Tatonetti, an assistant professor of biomedical informatics who lead the study said: “It’s important not to get overly nervous about these results because even though we found significant associations the overall disease risk is not that great.

“The risk related to birth month is relatively minor when compared to more influential variables like diet and exercise.”

The scientists hope the findings can help researchers uncover new disease risk factors.