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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
Elisa Francesca Roselli wrote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4304822.stm Yet another article filled with bad science. I don't doubt there is a correllation between exercise and lowered risk of dementia. But they failed to establish a true cause and effect relationship. This is a typical ecological fallacy. The true cause of the lowered risk may be eating habits. Perhaps it is more frequent washing (exercisers get stinky and probably wash more often). Maybe it is that exercisers have a lower exposure to chemical propellants because they are less concerned with their state of their hair - it's going to get messed up anyway, right? The point is that there are a lot of differences between exercisers and non-exercisers that are not accounted for in the article. If the researchers did attempt to control for this, it certainly isn't presented in the bbc article. If so, then this is just another case of the public press butchering good science because they don't know how to report it properly. Here's a good article on ecological fallacy: http://www.stanford.edu/class/ed260/freedman549.pdf -Buck |
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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
Didn't look like bad science to me - anyway the science is in the
research paper whereas this is just a journalistic report. It would seem that the conclusions are hedged with 'mays' and 'mights' and the conclusion is that 'more research is needed'. You don't need to prove a cause and effect to establish that something may be hazardous or beneficial. Anyway I'm going to keep on pedalling even if it is too late in my case. cheers Jacob |
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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
Buck wrote: Elisa Francesca Roselli wrote: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4304822.stm Yet another article filled with bad science. I don't doubt there is a correllation between exercise and lowered risk of dementia. But they failed to establish a true cause and effect relationship. This is a typical ecological fallacy. Have you read the paper yet? It is interesting though my quick skim suggests some worries about the stats. I'll have to go back and look more closely. The true cause of the lowered risk may be eating habits. Perhaps it is more frequent washing (exercisers get stinky and probably wash more often). Maybe it is that exercisers have a lower exposure to chemical propellants because they are less concerned with their state of their hair - it's going to get messed up anyway, right? The point is that there are a lot of differences between exercisers and non-exercisers that are not accounted for in the article. Try the Lancet Neurology article. They appear to be controlling for a few variables of interest. From the Lancet Neurology pre-pub "In brief, the baseline survey procedures included a self-administered questionnaire on health behaviour, health status, and medical history. Participants' blood pressure, height, and weight were measured, and body-mass index (BMI) was calculated. A venous blood sample was taken to determine serum cholesterol concentrations.13 In addition, the presence of various locomotor disorders was determined. [...] If the researchers did attempt to control for this, it certainly isn't presented in the bbc article. If so, then this is just another case of the public press butchering good science because they don't know how to report it properly. Here's a good article on ecological fallacy: http://www.stanford.edu/class/ed260/freedman549.pdf -Buck John Kane Kingston ON |
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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
General Systems Theory Beginning with Wholes
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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
General Systems Theory Beginning with Wholes
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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
Dunno why you didn't just go to the original Lancet article to see if
it's legit, but through the magic of the internet, here's a link for those who are interested: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science.../sdarticle.pdf -JR |
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BBC Article: Bike Now to Avoid Senility
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