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My new favorite term from epidemiology: J-Curve. Distribution matters, even with something as shades-of-grey as risk. For instance, yhere’s a lot of things that increase your mortality in a more-or-less linear way. The more you smoke, the greater your all-cause mortality risk, for example. This isn’t to say you increase your chance of death by [...]
This is an amazing chart — sad in one way, but uplifting in another, because it shows how stats-informed public policy can make a difference. The chart represents the incidence of SIDS (“crib death”) in Norway plotted out against the rise and fall of parents that put their children to sleep on their stomach. (Which [...]
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In medicine, researchers often rely on surrogate outcomes (also called surrogate endpoints). Take, for example, something like heart health. We know that a good ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol is a predictor of heart health and increased longevity. So we come up with a pill that changes that ratio for the better. And [...]
Read the following excerpt from Fat Economics: 1. What is the prevalence of obesity among American children (ages 6 to 13)? 2. What is the prevalence of obesity among Italian children (ages 6 to 13)?
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Via http://dailyinfographic.com/ Questions: 1. On average, how many drowning deaths were there in bathtubs, pools, and hot tubs in August? 2. The graphic states that 71% of deaths occurred in May, June, July, and August. If deaths were equally distributed throughout the year, what amount of deaths would we expect in these months instead? 3. Compute [...]
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From http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4543/14-MindBlowing-Facts-About-Sugar-Infographic.html First, a comment — note how nicely their sources are laid out. You don’t know what goes to what, but at least you have a starting point. Now, questions: 1. Source: Who is OnlineSchools? What’s their stake in this issue? Did they collect the data, or did someone else? 2. Look at comparison [...]
Three things it tells me: 1. The vast majority of alcohol consumers have had at least one hangover. 2. Less than half of students have weekly hangovers. 3. I think that the second and third bars are exclusive and of a common whole, which means that 40% of college students have at least one hangover [...]
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1. In this list of good and bad cities for your skin, some cities are included based on inputs (physical activity, access to health care) and some are based on outcomes (actual incidence of disease). Categorize all the criteria as either an input or an outcome. 2. Which of the measures are based on continuous [...]
Read the following poll on the attitudes of working doctors: http://www.doctorsandpatients.org/images/files/DPMA_SurveyResults.pdf 1. Refresh your understanding of non-response bias. Is the response rate sufficient to exclude non-response bias? Why or why not? 2. Response bias (as opposed to non-response bias) deals with the tendency of people to answer poll questions in a way to achieve some [...]
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After nutritional labeling went into effect in New York City, a large sample of people were polled about how the label affected their behavior — 27% reported the new labels influenced their behavior, and 10% of people reported purchasing fewer calories as a result. However, when researchers looked at the average amount of calories purchased [...]