Asthma Risk Linked To Early TV Viewing 266
Ponca City, We love you writes "The number of children with asthma has been rising for many years. About 1 in 10 children in the UK develop asthma, compared with about 1 in 25 in the 1960s. The reason for this isn't clear, although several theories have been put forward such as keeping our homes cleaner, and having central heating and more soft furnishings where house dust mites can multiply. Now based on more than 3,000 children whose respiratory health was tracked from birth to 11.5 years of age, researchers have found a new correlation with young children who spend more than two hours glued to the TV every day doubling their subsequent risk of developing asthma. 'This study has shown for the first time a positive association between increased duration of reported TV viewing in early childhood and the development of asthma by 11.5 years of age in children with no symptoms of asthma in early childhood,' said the researchers, led by A. Sherriff, from the University of Glasgow. It's not clear exactly how sedentary behaviors like television watching are tied to asthma, but there is some evidence to suggest exercise and deep breaths that come with it stretch the smooth muscles in the airways, while lack of exercise may make the lungs overly sensitive. The results add asthma to a catalog of undesirable outcomes, including obesity, diabetes, smoking, and promiscuity, tied to TV viewing."
Promiscuity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Promiscuity (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Promiscuity (Score:5, Funny)
For an 11-year-old? Um... ok, if you say so.
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You're close to the answer ... (Score:2)
Kids sitting in front of the TV arent outside playing - so they're exposed to higher concentrations of second-hand smoke for longer periods of time.
It's so obvious that maybe I should apply for a grant to show how the sun is in the sky only during daylight hours.
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I represent a consortium of investors who are interested in your proposed research. Please can you give us more information, such as how soon your research would yield commercialisable results.
We would also be interested in patenting the outcomes of your research, so please can you tell us how long it would take to fully write up a patent application for a method of comprehensively determining
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Well, the first thing to patent will be the method and device for tracking the sun. It's round, with a photo-receptive surface - which we can trademark as the "eye-ball", and fits in a skull-shaped object, which we can call an "eye-pod".
Or for simplicity, an "iBall" and an "iPod".
Re:Promiscuity (Score:5, Interesting)
I think even a little common sense would show that kids need to be outside playing, and getting exercise that comes naturally from that!!
When I grew up...during the summers off school...I was up and out about 9-10am...playing with my friends in the neighborhood. Skateboarding around, swimming in the neighborhood pool, sometimes 'stealing' wood from local house construction, to build forts in the woods nearby, or skateboard ramps at the end of our street, riding bikes around, etc.
We always had something to do....all my friends (I'm still in touch with most of the main ones I grew up with) were pretty much all raised by all of our parents, in that the group was always at one person's house or another.
This was before cell phones...when I was really young (in the 10-12 range) I made sure and called home to check in with my Mom from wherever I was at. When both my parents were working..I'd call and check in during the day periodically at their workplace. Thing is....we were out and playing and doing something whenever possible.
Granted, we only had 3-4 channels, but, while growing up, cable made it into our neighborhood, yet we still didn't spend 24/7 watching the damned thing, not during the days when there were things to do.
Hell, when was the last time you saw a group of kids in someones's front yard playing "kill the man with the ball"?
*sigh*
Re:Promiscuity (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if you're older than I, or just didn't have cable (it's the "3 channels" bit that I'm taking as an indicator) but you're spot on.
When I was growing up (80s), even though we had video games, we were social. Back then, you still had kids who would walk down the block, knock on his friends' door and ask if Joey could come out and play. Everyone had the story where they lost track of where they were going with their bikes and ended up in the next town. Or just beat the crap out of each other in the backyard with wiffle bats and snowballs.
Nowadays, "Can Joey come out to play" has been replaced with fucking "play dates?" And they wonder about rising levels of depression in children? Part of the price of being an adult is being locked in inane, rigid structure. Why the hell subject a 7 year old to that? Let the kids be fucking kids, rather than soiling yourself when little Brittney wants to rollerskate because she might scrape her knee.
Carlin was right. These people are fucked up, they're fucking up their kids, and in a single-digit number of generations, we're gonna be looking at a fucking society of Eloi.
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I think even a little common sense would show that kids need to be outside playing, and getting exercise that comes naturally from that!!
There are counterexamples. For instance, when smog is high, it's best to try to use your lungs as little as possible (I'm not kidding.) Exercise will do more harm than good. Don't go jogging in Los Angeles when the wind is blowing strongly onshore, you'll be sucking enough Chinese pollution to undo any good work you've done. The same thing was happening from Los Angeleno pollution, except worse; kids were getting lesions on their lungs and coughing up blood due to breathing LA's toxic debt. However, the CAR
Re:Promiscuity (Score:4, Insightful)
beat me to the point...
"promiscuity" being "undesirable" seems in line with the absurd overly-judgmental attitudes toward sex promoted by the far right and the religious zealots
IMO people would be a *lot* better off being taught healthy norms about sex and encouraged to have more healthy sex - instead of the story that it is somehow bad and needs to be restricted, hidden and controlled by shaming people
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War is peace, etc... we know.
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Hedonism... I think the word does not mean what you think it means.
Promiscuity, as far as I understand it, just means that you change partners. It does not say how often and it does not say in what situations. It therefore also does not say anything about the value of these relationships.
Hedonism is supposed to be a world-view that puts the consumption at the top of one's priorities. It is supposed to be selfish.
That you equate the two shows that you either do not understand their meanings or have, in my op
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In the course of my life I've changed "partners" several times. I had a partner in elementary school who I called my "best friend", I had another in middle/high school, another in college, another in grad school, and yet another in my workplace.
I suppose that makes me promiscuous, but I don't care. Each one of my best friends/partners gave me fulfillment at each stage of my life. I don't see anything wrong with that.
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My point exactly.
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>>>promiscuity is simple hedonism - it's empty and leads to a lonely place.
Yeah. So? I like leading an empty and lonely life. In fact, it's why I chose engineering. Who are YOU to judge my lifestyle? Jeez. "Lord, save me from your servants trying to control my life and my choices. Thanks."
Re:Promiscuity (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, promiscuity is simple hedonism
Promiscuity != Hedonism
Promiscuity is a "large" number of sexual partners. Large being purely subjective in this case. Just because someone is labeled as promiscuous does not mean that they're sleeping with a different person every night, nor does it mean that there's no value attached to the sex that they have. People in long-term, loving multiple-partner relationships are often labeled as promiscuous.
Hedonism is seeking pleasure above all else, that feeling good is your highest calling. This doesn't necessarily mean sex - it can also mean drugs, alcohol, food, whatever. And, yes, pursuing your own happiness/pleasure at the expense of all else does lead to many ills - social and otherwise.
The loss of shame leads to many, many social ills.
Personally, I've found that shame is rarely useful.
Shame comes in two flavors - your own, and everyone else's.
Your own shame is typically a result of realizing you did something you probably shouldn't have. I find it is typically better to think things through the first time and avoid the shame alltogether. When I'm trying to make a decision "I might be ashamed" doesn't enter into it - "is it a good decision" does. And typically, if it's a good decision, there's no call for shame.
Everyone else's shame is an attempt to get you to conform to what they think you should be doing. "You ought to be ashamed!" is someone telling you that you did something they don't like. Unless it's someone you genuinely value - your spouse or parent, for example - those are empty words. I personally couldn't care less whether some random person thinks I should be ashamed or not.
The "if it feels good, do it" philosophy is bunk.
If it feels good, why wouldn't you do it?
Certainly doing it, whatever it may be, to excess is probably going to be bad. But in moderation, as a responsible human being, why not? Why not have sex? Why not eat cake? Why not drink beer? Why not go skiing? Why not read a book? Is there something inherently noble in depriving yourself of pleasure? Is there something wrong with enjoying yourself?
Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation.
Most of the time "degeneracy" is a subjective label. If you agree with what someone is doing, to the extent that they're doing it, they're OK. If you don't agree with it, or if they're doing it too much, they're degenerate. And what exactly we label as "degenerate" is strongly influenced by our own morals and values - not any objective analysis.
If someone likes to read books, are they degenerate? What if they go through a book every single night? What if they avoid social contact in favor of reading? What if they get so hooked on reading that it starts affecting their work? What if they just can't put down a book during lunch and never get that TPS report done? Are they degenerate? Somehow that word just doesn't seem to fit, does it? Addicted maybe... They've certainly got issues... But degenerate?
Now what if they really like having sex? What if they have sex with someone different every night? What if they spend all their time trying to hook up with a new partner? What if their sexual encounters start affecting their work? What if they get caught fooling around with someone during lunch? I'm guessing the world "degenerate" seems a lot more fitting in this case.
Most of the western world (not just the US) has been conditioned by immersion in Judeo-Christian values to view sex as somehow separate from normal life activities. It's something secret, sacred, or dirty that polite people don't really talk about. It's something that should only happen between married couples... Or something that should only happen with a certain frequency... Or something that shouldn't involve people of the same gender, or power tools, or animals, or chains, or whatever... Sex has values and judgments attached to it that eating, for example, doesn't. Yet both of those are completely natural, and often pleasurable, parts of human existence.
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If you're feeling empty and lonely, you're not a very good hedonist. There's nothing wrong with being a hedonist, pleasure is good, pain is bad. You just have to be sure your strategy is to maximize total lifetime pleasure, instead of trading future pleasure for immediate pleasure. A real hedonist who values pleasure above all else would realize that the greatest pleasure comes from making others happy.
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While not inevitable, promiscuity DOES increase the risks of several undesirable outcomes substantially.
Re:Promiscuity (Score:4, Funny)
Just my thought.
I should have watched more TV as a child. Damn.
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Wow, so promiscuity is now considered an undesirable outcome? Perhaps from a religious morals point of view...
I'm guessing that it's the outcome you're likely to be able to achieve if you manage to dodge obesity, diabetes, smoking, and too much TV viewing.
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This is about childhood TV watching. Somehow I think you wouldn't want them to have sex in front of the TV.
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Newsflash: Promiscuity does often make babies.
"Non-paternity" happens in DNA studies with around 5 to 10% probability, depending on the population. I hear the Brits are the, umm, I was tempted to say worst, but I'd have to say most successful at that.
So this is clearly an evolutionary adaptation.
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Re:Just un(RE)productive (Score:2)
What's the point of promiscuity if it doesn't make babies? It might be entertaining for its participants, well, one of them anyway, but it doesn't actually accomplish anything useful. It's just self indulgence.
Well... I'm certainly glad I'm not your significant other. ;)
What other completely enjoyable activities are causing you horrible self-loathing?
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Are you seriously asking this question?
Of course it is self indulgence....most people do NOT wanna have a kid as a result of sex, they do it because it is fun and feels GREAT. Most human behavior is self indulgent and we do things because it is pleasurable.
And why would it not be "entertaining"
Re:Just unproductive (Score:5, Funny)
If you really need to ask this question, you are truly a Slashdotter.
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Given how few teenagers are responsible enough to use protection, thus opening themselves to the risk of STDs and pregnancy, yeah, it's undesirable.
You can't discount the possibility that part of that issue is the fact that we[0] repeatedly REFUSE TO FUCKING TELL THEM about protection, consequences, etc. Instead we try to take some archaic, puritanical moralist pulpit on the subject.
And they don't listen to us? Utterly fucking shocking.
[0]By we, I don't mean those present. I mean as an aggregate fuckwitted society.
Correlation vs. Causation (Score:4, Insightful)
It's an interesting result that certainly warrants further study but IMHO everything about this study just screams "correlation is not causation".
What if healthier kids just enjoy playing outside more? What if healthier parents (who didn't have asthma themselves as children) encourage their kids to play outside more. What about kids in urban environments with high levels of air pollution who don't really have anywhere to go outside to play (without getting shot in a drive-by).
Re:Correlation vs. Causation (Score:5, Informative)
Exercise has been proven to reduce Asthma. It can even fix it in adults although it has to be dosed very carefully. There are elite runners (can't remember a name though) who started running to curb their Asthma.
Re:Correlation vs. Causation (Score:4, Informative)
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I played with farm animals when I was a child (cows, horses, goats, rabbits). I ran through hayfields and cornfields and often ended-up covered head-to-toe with pollen. I'm now immune to any smell, and have no allergy to anything.
Perhaps I should recommend the farm lifestyle to more people - exposure leads to immunity.
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So you're from Perry County then?*&**
*I know you're from PA, as am I, so just joking. Don't know if you're local to me.
** Inside joke for those from Central PA. Soft of like folks from Vermont/New Hampshire who wear boots and work around sheep
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Agreed, it's gonna depend on a person's triggers.
I have had asthma since I was 5 (I am now 34) and I ride 10 miles a day on my bicycle and exercise regularly. It hasn't gotten any better for me because mine is exercise-induced (along with other triggers like cold air), specifically the bouncing motion of running, that causes an attack. How do I know this? A few days of study by the US army to determine my triggers at Ft. Knox when I was there during basic.
The simple fact is there is very little known about
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I have a theory.
Scientists say that there is a correlation between growing up in a relatively dust-free environment and developing asthma. Kids who are playing outside are exposed to dust and don't become hypersensitive to it, whereas kids who spend much time in front of the TV are rarely exposed to outside dust, and so they develop asthma.
Re:Correlation vs. Causation (Score:4, Insightful)
everything about this study just screams "correlation is not causation".
I think what scream loudest in this case is that you are uncomfortable with the implications; perhaps there are things in your lifestyle you don't want to change?
Taken in isolation this kind of study does seem a little bizarre, and the way it is presented in the popular media doesn't help either, when it is reported as if it was a kind of joke. However, it is part of a growing trend that seems to indicate that a lot of illnesses are actually lifestyle diseases, and there is growing evidence that one common factor is inflammation - or the presence of certain indicators of inflammation, I should say. Inflammation seems to lie behind such things as atherosclerosis, insulin resistence, and of course it is known to a major symptom in asthma. The adipose tissues of obese people seem to be the seat of low-level inflammation too, or something very similar. Now, I don't know about you, but when I see all these things together, I don't think it is all that unlikely that sitting in front of the telly instead of getting up and about actually is a major causative factor in these lifestyle diseases, asthma included.
It is also well-known that exercise actually is a very effective way of lowering the levels of inflammation in places where you don't want it - perhaps because exercise actually causes low-level damage to muscles and connective tissue; this sort of draws the attention of the body's repair system away from the places where it is not actually supposed to be. Inflammation is an important part of the repair system, which is why muscles get sore from exercise.
Re:Correlation vs. Causation (Score:4, Funny)
So you took the same course as this guy?
http://www.xkcd.com/552/ [xkcd.com]
Re:Correlation vs. Causation (Score:5, Insightful)
Lazy parents who use the TV as a baby sitter for hours on end are also likely to be lazy when it comes to preparing healthy meals and resort to take away meals and junk food snacks. Also children that suffer from asthma are likely to prefer less arduous activities, like watching TV, in order to reduce the risk of an attack.
As for the growth in asthma, increasing levels of exotic pollutants (that generate hormonal reactions in people) plus the effects of junk food consumption during pregnancy are the most likely the culprits.
Feeding neuro stimulant so called 'flavour enhancers' to unborn children is most likely not the brightest idea in the world and maybe the future health of an unborn generation should be put ahead of the profits of junk food and chemical additive manufacturers.
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Of course the fact that it says "TV" is correlated with asthma when they mean "being seditary" shows a massive bias. We see these reports of how TV causes health problems because it makes you se
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What? (Score:2)
From the summary "undesirable outcomes. . . smoking, and promiscuity, . . . [and] TV viewing."
Wait, these are bad things?
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The summary states "tied to TV viewing". Don't know about you, but that sounds pretty bad to me!
Computers (Score:4, Interesting)
Presumably (as far as Asthma goes) the same applies to sitting in front of computers/sitting playing handheld games like the DS. Though it would be interesting to know whether that carries the same correlations with the other undesirable outcomes.
Filthy carpets (Score:4, Interesting)
In another scientific article researchers link filthy carpets in the living room to asthma, but for some reason that article never made the headlines...
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But there is no correlation between families with filthy carpets, and families that watch TV.
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>but for some reason that article never made the headlines...
Great research is often buried. My definitive study, for instance, clearly shows there were NO nuclear bombs before America gave women the right to vote. But do I get any credit for this groundbreaking investigation? Not a bit. I just toil in obscurity ...
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You've got it backwards. Asthma is linked with excessive cleanliness. People who are raised on farms and exposed to a lot o dirt don't get asthma. Google "hygiene hypothesis asthma" sometime.
Breathing causes Asthma (Score:5, Funny)
A more obvious association.. (Score:3, Interesting)
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I had the same thought. More time outside the home also exposes the child to more dirt, more bacteria, and more of the tiny little worms out there. The beneficial effect of this exposure is known as the hygiene hypothesis. Kids who grow up on farms and poor people living off the land don't get asthma and a whole host of immune system disorders. There was a recent article by Jane Brody in the New York Times [nytimes.com] about the hygiene hypothesis.
Basically, a little dirt is good for you.
Vitamin D deficiency, anyone? (Score:2, Interesting)
The "hygiene hypothesis" is one hypothesis to explain the prevalence of asthma among kids who stay indoors a lot. But that hypothesis doesn't explain the particularly high prevalence of asthma among black inner city kids--they don't live in particularly clean/fastidious environments. Turns out there's another hypothesis that's at least as plausible: Vitamin D deficiency.
Being indoors a lot equates to a lack of adequate sun exposure, which causes Vitamin D deficiency, which is now epidemic. (And having dark
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A sedentary lifestyle indoors is unhealthy; who'd a thunk it?
In my day we had to breathe underwater and we were THANKFUL for the opportunity. Darn sissys.
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The question is how many people in the population / sample have undiagnosed asthma.
Your hypothesis is easy to test.
Of course, the real interesting bit from that is whether it works out better in the long term for that kid to go out and do -some- exercise, and what impact it'd have on their asthma.
well... (Score:3, Interesting)
the other way to look at this is that kids with asthma spend time in front of the tv since running around outside may kill them
oh no... (Score:2)
Even though this study raises a lot more questions than answers, I can still hear the horde of TV apologists starting their stampede now...
(Well, once the commercials come on, anyway.)
12 hours outside plus 3 hours TV... (Score:2)
Well, depending on the day of the week (and weather) during the day, I was either outside for 10 to 12 hours, or in school followed by outside time, then about 3 hours TV in the evening. No asthma.
Though I suppose all that outside activity had something to with with that.
Hmm... (Score:4, Insightful)
Makes Perfect Sense (Score:2)
It's so obvious that it's almost not worth having spent research money on it, but somebody has to prove even the obvious scientifically.
It's a good, solid result: kids with asthma sit around inside a lot (by choice or parental "concern") and so watch a lot of TV.
They wouldn't dare try to make the claim in the other direction, since it would be so easy for them to compare with kids that had the same condition but sat inside reading or doing other things instead of watching TV.
If TV caused all these problems,
Don't buy some of it. (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think that researchers understand the difference between causation and correlation.
I'll buy that watching a lot of tv can lead to someone being overweight. After all, how many of use use a treadmill while watching our "stories." I'll buy that not exercising can have other outcomes such as (stretching it) asthma. Not working those lunges may indeed lead to problems for kids. But, this is hardly a conclusive study. Where's all the testing on the tissues themselves. Where ruling out other factors such as diet, air quality, etc? I know we got some of that tissue around that the lab guys can do tests on and while following people around for over a decade, it's hard to believe that they couldn't have noticed living conditions.
But, obesity, diabetes, smoking and (especially) promiscuity?!?!? Bullshit. One must be susceptible to get diabetes and the TV cannot make one not exercise and smoke. And promiscuity?!?! PROMISCUITY?!?!? Perhaps these guys should get out of the lab and see just how many parents are NOT parenting there kids.
Jesus christ. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.
Re:Don't buy some of it. (Score:4, Interesting)
> I don't think that researchers understand the difference between causation and correlation.
Why is that ? Have you ever undertaken studies to become a researcher, perhaps at PhD or post-doc levels ? If you did and still believe this, then you should ask for your money back. Most such programs involve quite extensive theory behind how to calculate statistical association and correlation. Do you actually know anything on how this study was performed and how its findings was analyzed ?
Perhaps you do, but the tone of your comment leads me to think that you have no idea and just think the summary sounded too far-fetching for your liking.
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The promiscuity thing was an earlier study that linked teenage dramas with lots of discussion of sex and promiscuity to surprise: promiscuity.
Brainless research (Score:4, Interesting)
OK no seriously now WTF. There's not a day without a health news story talking about some weird correlation between two factors that are obviously not directly related. What's a researcher these days, someone who gathers a whole bunch of data, looks for all the statistical correlation they can find and publish a paper as soon as they find "something", without using an ounce of critical thinking? It surely is how it sounds like.
"So we took a whole bunch of people, alright, we asked them a whole bunch of random questions about their weight, their diet, their asthma, their TV watching habits, then we cross plotted them, let the computer program give us a correlation index and the one with the strongest correlation was asthma vs TV so we wrote a paper about it. As to the whyness of this correlation, meh, we don't really know, nor did we bother to establish a few hypothesises like "oh maybe it's due to socio-economic conditions i.e. poor people watch more TV and live in houses with asbestos hey let's try and find out", nah, we just care about writing a paper and making it buzz for all it's worth cause it's gonna look good on our CVs and you know it's going to work because people love senseless sensationalist drivel like "new research shows that learning to play the violin will make you live 6 years longer!" or "can eating pineapple make you gain IQ points?"."
Re:Brainless research (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you have any clue what's involved in doing scientific research, especially involving a large study such as the one in question (ALSPAC), involving 14000 children and their parents ? It sounds like you are questioning the scientific methods used in the study, which so far has resulted in over 300 peer-review academic papers, so it would be interesting to know what you base this on.
Or is this just a knee-jerk reaction to something that's not obvious to you ?
I'm not saying that you're out of your depth here, but I'll wager that you are.
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Perhaps I am, but I believe that you're reading too much into the public release media material, which is a very watered-down version of the findings of the actual study.
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>some weird correlation between two factors that are obviously not directly related. What's a researcher these days, someone who gathers a whole bunch of data, looks for all the statistical correlation they can find and publish a paper as soon as they find "something"
But here's the thing: they did find "something", that is statistically significant. That means there *is* a direct relationship. That's the whole point of statistics. They're establishing that there's something going on, and then they go
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But here's the thing: they did find "something", that is statistically significant. That means there *is* a direct relationship.
FAIL! It's not because there's a correlation that there's a direct relationship. Unless by direct relationship you mean A and B are linked by A<-C<-D->E->B, which I'd rather call "indirect". Let's say it goes like this : poor people are poor -> therefore their kids have a shitty education -> therefore they hardly know how to read or do anything creative -> th
Hmmmmm..... (Score:3, Informative)
" The results add asthma to a catalog of undesirable outcomes, including obesity, diabetes, smoking, and promiscuity, tied to TV viewing."
Ok..... obesity, diabetes, and smoking I can definitely find true. Promiscuity, sort of, but only in the sense that it leads to a lack of knowledge about reality and people learning social norms through Big Media and Hollywood.
Asthma, on the other hand, would require a whole hell of a lot more evidence, study, and explaination than simply correlation.
Outdated, primitive, and WRONG. (Score:2)
Sorry, but I got living proof of the cause of Asthma being bad food.
A friend of mine had a bad Asthma every summer. He nearly suffocated without his inhalator.
He found a book of some guy claiming that in decades of clinical experience, said that bad food was the reason.
He gave it a try, and stopped eating anything denatured. No heated protein. No processed food. Most of all, no sugar / starch / white flour.
And what do you know... That summer he did use that inhalator only one singe time. Next summer he had
Talk about the wrong conclusion in the summary... (Score:2)
"The results add asthma to a catalog of undesirable outcomes, including obesity, diabetes, smoking, and promiscuity, tied to TV viewing.""
No, the results add asthma to a catalog of undesirable outcomes, including obesity and diabetes, tied to a sedentary lifestyle.
Honestly, was this article summary written by this guy [theonion.com]?
Re:Repeat after me: (Score:5, Informative)
See http://xkcd.com/552 [xkcd.com]
Make sure you hover over the comic...
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See my post above. The causation has been known for a long time. Exercise reduces and can fix Asthma.
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Damnit, modders! (Score:3)
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Can you at least look at the goddamned timestamp before modding something as "redundant"?? Mine was the second comment in this whole thread!
You must be new here.
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Re:Damnit, modders! (Score:4, Insightful)
"Correlation does not imply causation" is said in every topic that has any type of statistics. So while this may have been the first post about it in this topic, its quite redundant.
The correlation coefficient is simply a tool.
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It isn't "redundant" unless it's been stated more than once, and if I was the first one to state it, then my comment wasn't redundant.
To Anonymous: (Score:2)
Correlation -- all by itself -- most definitely does NOT imply causation. I don't give a damn if the correlation coefficient is 1.0. There is a very strong possibility that some outside influence is the cause of BOTH events.
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A strong possibility, eh?
But according to you, Correlation does not imply Causation!!!
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If we presume that this is correct (and perhaps it is), then indeed, the strong correlation between watching TV and asthma does NOT imply causation at all, on either side. It turns out that BOTH watching television AND asthma are only linked through a third, entirely external factor: exercise.
Now, one could say that watching TV too much will reduce your exercise time. On the o
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you know what else, a recent study showed tubby nerds lived longer than athletic types, so a certain amount of sedentary life style isn't bad for you. for one our immune systems are stronger because exercise weakens it, we don't get the sporting injuries, we don't get all
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Bollocks. (Score:5, Funny)
I'm filthy stinking rich and have a REALLY nice sports car.
You know, most of the filthy rich sports car owners I know:
1) Don't sit round big noting themselves on Slashdot.
2) Don't refer to their sports car as a "really nice sports car", but rather something more specific like "a 1967 Jaguar E-type coupe".
I am prepared to believe that you're a smoker & obese.
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So, how come you read Groklaw? (Score:2)
So, how come you read Groklaw?
Re: (Score:2)
And red does not equal stop sign. If people (people who actually do statistics) thought they were the same then it would be causation coefficient.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact, I'm tempted to think the opposite. An overly sterile environment has been theorized to repress childhood immune systems, causing them to become overly sensitized to pollens, dust, etc.
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What you're talking about is called the Hygiene Hypothesis [wikipedia.org] and there's a lot of evidence for it, although it's pretty hard to test.
But as for air quality -- the air quality in large cities was much worse in the '60's, but fewer people lived in cities. Rural air quality has been steadily declining, urban air quality has been increasing rapidly since about 1975, but urban air quality is still poor, especially as regards more or less inert particulates kicked up by traffic, and people keep moving from rural a
Re: (Score:2)
I bet playing outside would show a correlation with skin cancer, broken bones, lacerations, and abduction. Oh no. Better bring them all back inside right away! Oops.. asthma, obesity, smoking, and promiscuity. Quick kids, get on the porch. No one has studied the porch! Run kids! Run for your lives!