Science in a nut shell [Non-football topic - Golf]Archived Message
Posted by oakwoodbank on 13/2/2020, 11:00 am
Journalists who write up research for the popular media often don’t seem to know what they are trying to tell us. They use terms that are ambivalent and that confuse people into believing something that the research didn’t identify.
For instance, this week the media tells us:
A study of nearly 6,000 people, with an average age of 72, found that those who played golf at least once a month had a significantly lower mortality rate.
Or, as another media outlet put it:
Significantly lower death rates
Do you know what that means for you?
Mortality is the condition of one day having to die; and we know that all of us are going to die at some point in the future.
If playing golf is going to delay that date, then the journalist needs to find out from the research from what diseases or conditions golf is going to delay our demise, otherwise the story is unhelpful to most of us.
It will probably be the case that there are other leisure activities that will bring about the same result. However, no doubt the researchers didn’t identify what those might be.
The crude mortality rate or crude death rate is defined as the ratio of the number of deaths during the year to the average population in that year; the value is expressed per 1000 inhabitants. If it is a general figure then it will apply to golf players or non-golf players alike.