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The figure 1 makes it look like an awful lot like there is no pattern at all for the vast majority of counties, and then the few with the very highest suicide r
by nonameiguess 3y ago
The figure 1 makes it look like an awful lot like there is no pattern at all for the vast majority of counties, and then the few with the very highest suicide rates are all very high altitude. They also mention this, but I'm not sure country is a great way to measure this. Death Valley and Mt Whitney, the lowest and highest altitude points in the contiguous states, are in the same county. Might also want to remove Vegas, which is high altitude and high suicide, but obviously for unrelated reasons.
- evancox100 3y agoThe appearance of figure 1 is due to the majority of counties being at / near sea level. Suppose we take as true that there is a direct link between altitude and some other phenomenon, for example rates of altitude sickness. If 90% of the counties are near sea level, with some variation, you would only see increased altitude sickness in the 10% highest counties. The graph would look similar to what you see here.
- chongli 3y agoYou could probably control for the Vegas issue by excluding suicides of non-residents, though I don’t know if that information is tracked or not. If that information is not tracked then it’s really useless!
- cozzyd 3y agogambling addiction is a problem for locals as well (perhaps more so).
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago> They also mention this, but I'm not sure country is a great way to measure this. Death Valley and Mt Whitney, the lowest and highest altitude points in the contiguous states, are in the same county. Citing the exception to try to disprove the rule generally doesn't work out so well. Most high-elevation counties in the US are situated in extremely large high elevation regions.