4 ms·
In addition to the other cm2187's accurate observation that this may be literal survivor bias, the other potential explanation is whether the control group was
by DevX101 8y ago
In addition to the other cm2187's accurate observation that this may be literal survivor bias, the other potential explanation is whether the control group was well designed.
Israel is currently ~50% Sephardic Jews, descendants from Middle Eastern/North African peoples. Holocaust survivors are almost all Ashkenazi Jews (European ancestors). If the study was comparing Ashkenazi Jews in the test group vs a control group that was majority Sephardic, it's possible the differences in lifetime was due to some cultural or genetic differences between the two groups.
The study doesn't seem to account for this confounding variable.
- pliny 8y agoThe control group is people born in Israel from 1911 to 1945, which would make them mostly Ashkenazi since most Sephardic immigration occured after this period.
- curtis 8y agoThe control group was drawn from Jews who were born in Palestine between 1911 and 1945. I think it's likely that this group would likely have been almost entirely Ashkenazi Jews, because there was substantial emigration of European Jews into Palestine prior to World War II. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah. (It's not relevant to your point, but although Sephardic Jews are not Ashkenazi Jews, not all non-Ashkenazi Jews are Sephardic. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews.)
- EGreg 8y agoActually many Sephardi Jews already lived in Israel at that time, having come during the Ottoman period.
- rv-de 8y agocm's observation is not correct within the context of the article as cm's observation is based on superior health which is refuted by the text.
- DoctorOetker 8y agowhat fraction of the pre WWII population in palestine was non-jewish?