3 ms·
Some of these graphs are laughable and are candidates for "Spurious Correlations" [1]. Childhood obesity is not due to the US getting rid of the gold standard.
by wyldfire 6y ago
Some of these graphs are laughable and are candidates for "Spurious Correlations" [1]. Childhood obesity is not due to the US getting rid of the gold standard.
[1] http://archive.is/9VFmh http://archive.is/9VFmh
- beamatronic 6y agoIt could be related to the increase in both parents working. No mother at home to provide nutritious meals. And both parents working is due to the already explained economic factors.
- gota 6y agoGreat thinking. I googled "mother employment child obesity" and apparently it is so. The first result on google scholar has 200+ citations[1]. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11150-009-9052-y.pdf https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11150-009-905...
- JackFr 6y agoIndeed. And another good trick used is showing exponential growth on a linear scale and managing the time domain to make 1971 look like an inflection point.
- swalsh 6y agoSo many aspects of our lives can potentially be linked back to the economy. Not really trying to make the argument that it is directly related, but income and obesity are highly correlated. Cheap calories often are bad calories. If going off the gold standard impacted the distribution of wealth. It might be plausible that could impact obesity. * again, not aruging for or against the correlation. Just pointing out that it is hardly laughable.
- rhacker 6y agoI'd say it's a correlation.
- rhacker 6y agoIt still falls under the title - "WTF happened in 1971?" Also, you can clearly see that obesity is a modern problem and I think it is related to a certain kind of apathy that has happened and likely related to income stagnation, as well as drug and alcohol use.
- Lammy 6y agoThe cheapest foods are the highly-processed terrible-for-you ones. There's a reason obesity rate tracks income.