2 ms·

Whenever I see claims like this, I wonder about the causality. Aren't both number of children and intestinal worm infection both correlated with poverty? If so,

• ceejayoz 11y ago
  > Aren't both number of children and intestinal worm infection both correlated with poverty? If so, how did they control for this? The experimental group is impoverished people with worms. The control group is impoverished people without worms. From the article: > The researchers tried to answer the question by analyzing data on the Tsimane people who live in the Amazon rainforest of Bolivia. > The roughly 16,000 Tsimane survive mainly by hunting, fishing, and raising crops such as rice and plantains. Their homeland is prime parasite country. About 15% to 20% of them harbor Ascaris, and 56% of them carry hookworms. Infected women in the study usually were unaware they were playing host to the parasites, Blackwell says.
• nkrisc 11y ago
  Based on my reading of the linked description of study, I wouldn't necessarily equate poverty with a subsistence lifestyle. Also, it appears they were comparing women within the same population (infected and not infected).