5 ms·

Are the first 3 causes dying, aging, and poor health? As soon as you start allowing abstract concepts that contribute to a person's death to count as the cause

Are the first 3 causes dying, aging, and poor health? As soon as you start allowing abstract concepts that contribute to a person's death to count as the cause of a person's death, this stops being an especially meaningful statistic. I'd much rather see a calculation of how many years of life are lost, an actually meaningful metric.

jrflowers 3y ago
> I'd much rather see a calculation of how many years of life are lost, an actually meaningful metric. How do you calculate the number of years lost? Do you subtract their age from the national age expectancy or do you run a prediction model to extrapolate the age each individual would have lived to given what data is available for them?
- AbrahamParangi 3y ago
  Those are both better ideas than the cited study!
  - jrflowers 3y ago
    [dead]
tayistay 3y ago
> I'd much rather see a calculation of how many years of life are lost, an actually meaningful metric. It's only a google search away! Looks like the rich live about 10 years longer than the poor in the US. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > Looks like the rich live about 10 years longer than the poor At the extremes. The “gap in life expectancy between the richest 1% and poorest 1% of individuals was 14.6 years (95% CI, 14.4 to 14.8 years) for men and 10.1 years (95% CI, 9.9 to 10.3 years) for women.” More troubling, between 2001 and 2014 “life expectancy increased by 2.34 years for men and 2.91 years for women in the top 5% of the income distribution, but increased by only 0.32 years for men and 0.04 years for women in the bottom 5%.” [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/
- WeylandYutani 3y ago
  Tying healthcare to employment will only make this worse.
davesque 3y ago
Common dreams is known for click bait stuff like this.
plufz 3y ago
I’m not knowledgeable enough about this to have an opinion. But isn’t it valid to say that someone died from AIDS even if actual cause of death is pneumonia? If the underlying factor is very strong can’t that be seen as the cause of death?

jrflowers 3y ago

> I'd much rather see a calculation of how many years of life are lost, an actually meaningful metric. How do you calculate the number of years lost? Do you subtract their age from the national age expectancy or do you run a prediction model to extrapolate the age each individual would have lived to given what data is available for them?

AbrahamParangi 3y ago
Those are both better ideas than the cited study!
- jrflowers 3y ago
  [dead]

tayistay 3y ago

> I'd much rather see a calculation of how many years of life are lost, an actually meaningful metric. It's only a google search away! Looks like the rich live about 10 years longer than the poor in the US. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> Looks like the rich live about 10 years longer than the poor At the extremes. The “gap in life expectancy between the richest 1% and poorest 1% of individuals was 14.6 years (95% CI, 14.4 to 14.8 years) for men and 10.1 years (95% CI, 9.9 to 10.3 years) for women.” More troubling, between 2001 and 2014 “life expectancy increased by 2.34 years for men and 2.91 years for women in the top 5% of the income distribution, but increased by only 0.32 years for men and 0.04 years for women in the bottom 5%.” [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/
WeylandYutani 3y ago
Tying healthcare to employment will only make this worse.

davesque 3y ago

Common dreams is known for click bait stuff like this.

plufz 3y ago

I’m not knowledgeable enough about this to have an opinion. But isn’t it valid to say that someone died from AIDS even if actual cause of death is pneumonia? If the underlying factor is very strong can’t that be seen as the cause of death?