Risk Factors Associated with Mortality in Game of Thrones: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Abstract

Objective: To assess mortality, and identify the risk factors associated with mortality in Game of Thrones (GoT). Design and Setting: A longitudinal cohort study in the fictional kingdom of Westeros and Essos. Participants: All the characters appearing in the GoT since airing of its first episode with screen time of greater than or equal to 5 minutes. Main Outcome Measures: All-cause mortality. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard model was used to assess the risk factors associated with mortality, represented by hazard ratios, with episodes as the unit of time. Results: Of the 132 characters, followed up for a median time of 32 episodes, a total 89 (67.4%) characters died; with external invasive injury as the most common cause of death, attributing to 42.4% of the total deaths. Age (in decades) was a significant risk factor for death [HR, 1.24 (95% CI, 1.08-1.43), P=0.0001]. Although statistically non-significant, allegiance to house Targaryen [HR, 1.10 (95% CI, 0.32-3.77)] was associated with a higher risk for mortality per episode than house Stark. Characters residing in South were less likely to die than characters residing in North [HR, 0.58 (95% CI, 0.29-1.16), P=0.12]. Advisors showed a lower risk of mortality than the members of houses, with some statistical significance [HR, 0.39 (95% CI, 0.14-1.08), P=0.07]. Conclusions: There is a high mortality rate among the characters in GoT. Residing in the North and being a member of a house is very dangerous in GoT. Allegiance to house Stark trended to be safer than house Targaryen.