

To Explain Longevity Gap, Look Past Health System - jamesbritt
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/science/22tier.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

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ZeroGravitas
As much as I like fact-based smackdowns, this seem a bit thin to me.
Particularly the big conclusion:

 _“The U.S. has had one spectacular achievement in preventive medicine,” he
says. “It has had the largest drop in cigarette consumption per adult of any
developed country since 1985.”_

But didn't we just learn, a few paragraphs back that:

 _"For four decades, until the mid-1980s, per-capita cigarette consumption was
higher in the United States (particularly among women) than anywhere else in
the developed world."_

So the one big comparative success in preventative medicine may just be a
statistical fluke based on the larger number of smokers. How do the stats
compare if you ask what percentage of smokers quit? If the percentage is the
exact same the US per-capita drop would be higher simply because more
cigarettes were smoked intially.

I'm also not sure being "more likely to recieve medication" for a short list
of problems is necessarily a good thing if lifestyle changes could have a
better effect (both from the perspective of the patient and of taxpayers
funding the treatment).

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Mz
I belong to a number of health-related lists. The debate about the healthcare
system raged on endlessly on some of those lists. Any time I said that there
are other differences between the US and other countries besides who pays the
medical bills, it was largely ignored. So I was happy to see this article --
and never mind that it is also getting ignored as there are no comments on it
(other than mine now).

~~~
jamesbritt
I had posted this partly because it offered another point of view on the
health care debate, but mostly as an example of how people can misunderstand
data and come to suspect conclusions.

I would think this is of general interest to people looking to understand a
market or some behavior. Certainly more comments would be welcome.

