4 ms·

> I don't think "age" is a valid cause of death. > so the cause of death was ...? Age?

bloak 4y ago
One of the main purposes of recording cause of death is so that we know what to concentrate on for improving public health. For example, perhaps we could make old people's bones less brittle by adding vitamins to bread, or do something to persuade more of them to eat something other than just bread and jam, or perhaps we could stop them getting infected with pneumonia in hospitals, or somehow make pneumonia more survivable, or ... Putting "age" as the "cause of death" would be about as useful as putting "birth" or "cessation of the vital functions".
- smcl 4y ago
  I agree and I might add that we probably don't want to normalise the idea that the elderly just randomly die of "old age". That could easily result in a decline of standards in hospitals and elderly residential homes, or it could even give the Harold Shipmans of the world free reign to do as they please: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman Everybody dies and we can't deny that, there likely won't be some breakthrough within my lifetime where we conquer death. But we should still be striving to understand the causes, to know whether someone died because of heart failing due to being really old[0], or whether it was down to something preventable or that otherwise indicates a failure in our system [0] - not a doctor, I don't know what sort of things they normally use for this. Substitute an actual cause of death if this doesn't sound right :)
- zeroth32 4y ago
  Fixing old people is incredibly ambitious. How about we concentrate on low hanging fruit first? Young person with broken hand, knife stabbing, or dog bite comes into hospital, gets treated, leaves 2 hours latter. Nobody gets bankrupt, has to sell kidney, nobody waits 20 hours.... > getting infected with pneumonia And old age is an infection as well, right? ...
  - smcl 4y ago
    This is a little bit naive, I don't think you've really thought a great deal about how healthcare works. You're talking about a basic triaging system in ER (or A&E or whatever it's called in your locale) - this is something that every hospital does already. It's kind of obvious you're young (20-something or at the very most early 30s), but just remember you're going to be "infected" by old age one day. You'll likely feel a little bit different about the whole old people are just ill and die attitude then. And that's not even to mention the elderly who are alive today who we are responsible for and should feel compassion for. A bit of empathy goes a long way :)

One of the main purposes of recording cause of death is so that we know what to concentrate on for improving public health. For example, perhaps we could make old people's bones less brittle by adding vitamins to bread, or do something to persuade more of them to eat something other than just bread and jam, or perhaps we could stop them getting infected with pneumonia in hospitals, or somehow make pneumonia more survivable, or ... Putting "age" as the "cause of death" would be about as useful as putting "birth" or "cessation of the vital functions".

smcl 4y ago
I agree and I might add that we probably don't want to normalise the idea that the elderly just randomly die of "old age". That could easily result in a decline of standards in hospitals and elderly residential homes, or it could even give the Harold Shipmans of the world free reign to do as they please: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman Everybody dies and we can't deny that, there likely won't be some breakthrough within my lifetime where we conquer death. But we should still be striving to understand the causes, to know whether someone died because of heart failing due to being really old[0], or whether it was down to something preventable or that otherwise indicates a failure in our system [0] - not a doctor, I don't know what sort of things they normally use for this. Substitute an actual cause of death if this doesn't sound right :)
zeroth32 4y ago
Fixing old people is incredibly ambitious. How about we concentrate on low hanging fruit first? Young person with broken hand, knife stabbing, or dog bite comes into hospital, gets treated, leaves 2 hours latter. Nobody gets bankrupt, has to sell kidney, nobody waits 20 hours.... > getting infected with pneumonia And old age is an infection as well, right? ...
- smcl 4y ago
  This is a little bit naive, I don't think you've really thought a great deal about how healthcare works. You're talking about a basic triaging system in ER (or A&E or whatever it's called in your locale) - this is something that every hospital does already. It's kind of obvious you're young (20-something or at the very most early 30s), but just remember you're going to be "infected" by old age one day. You'll likely feel a little bit different about the whole old people are just ill and die attitude then. And that's not even to mention the elderly who are alive today who we are responsible for and should feel compassion for. A bit of empathy goes a long way :)