Sunday, February 14, 2010

Early Death or Heavy Boundary Work

On Feb 11th of 2010 the Star Tribune published the an article entitled, "Obese kids face twice the risk of an early death, study finds" There are several problems with this article i would like to address, firstly its title. The use of the word 'obese' serves only as a buzz word to gain superficial attention, while a basic glaze over the reading itself reveals that obesity is not quantified whatsoever. Furthermore, the study itself uses flawed logic when claiming that the 166 deaths of participants could be attributed to one of seven listed causes ranging from cancer to infections.
Never does the article provide solid statistical evidence in support of it's title claim, instead it babbles about Michelle Obama's campaign to stop childhood obesity and things of this nature. I find this extremely disturbing for obesity, apart from being very relevant in our current cultural climate, has potential to wreak insurance havoc. True scientific claims that kids are facing premature death due to their obesity would have massive repercussions in the political community, including the potential for insurance companies to deny applicants based on future development of obesity-related health concerns.

thank you for your time
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4 comments:

  1. JimFebruary 15, 2010 at 1:07 PM

    Wow! Allison, your letter addresses an important and timely topic--childhood obesity. However, I was put off by the letter's tone (especially the part about babbling about Michelle Obama's campaign}. Perhaps your argument would be strengthened if you gave more substantial supporting evidence such as why you concluded the study used flawed logic.

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  2. A.H.February 15, 2010 at 3:08 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. A.H.February 15, 2010 at 3:11 PM

    i messed up what i wanted to post, haha. okay here i go again: I think your letter was spot on, but maybe Jim's right about the tone... i personally agree with you, but some people might be put off, so maybe you could try to reword a little so that more readers listen to what you have to say.

    specifically about the michelle obama's campaign, maybe a mention about how the scientific research on obesity is being used for politics??

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  4. elizabethmkFebruary 15, 2010 at 5:50 PM

    I don't think the author of the article was intending to prove or disprove the conclusion of the study published in NEJM. She was just reporting it, in order to draw attention to the problem of childhood obesity. I think if you were to look at the actual study, a lot of your questions would be answered (quantification of obesity, how those 166 non-accident/homocides were categorized, etc....)

    Also, I think Michelle Obama's campaign was only mentioned once in the article.

    I think you have a good point about being concerned about obesity being used to deny coverage, but it looks like legislation will be passed prohibiting such discrimination, so yay!

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