Today's story from the Associated Press, "Study: American kids getting fatter
at disturbing rate".
"By 1998, nearly 22 percent of black children ages 4 to 12 were overweight,
as were 22 percent of Hispanic youngsters and 12 percent of whites. ...In
1986, the same survey showed that about 8 percent of black children, 10
percent of Hispanic youngsters and 8 percent of whites were significantly
overweight. ...Overweight was defined as having a body-mass index higher
than 95 percent of youngsters of the same age and sex, based on growth charts
from the 1960s to 1980s. ... Disturbing trends also were seen in the number
of children who had a body-mass index higher than 85 percent of their peers.
In 1986, about 20 percent of blacks, Hipanics and whites alike were in that
category. By 1998, those figures had risen to about 38 percent of blacks and
Hispanics alike and nearly 29 percent of whites."
I guess that means that today's children have gotten so fat, that 100% is not
enough to account for them---in1986 children required105%, and by1998 a full
114% to123% was required to account for them ;-). The only way I can make
sense out of this story is if these percentages use as a baseline the 50
percentile and 85 percentile body-mass index values from the 1960s.
But clearly, neither the author, or the editors, either understood or cared
that what they were writing was self-contradictory on its face. Can our
statistical literacy have gotten that bad?
It reminds me of the story that Barry Goldwater in his 1964 Presidential
campaign vowed that if he were elected, no American would make less than the
national average income.
--
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Lee Altenberg, Ph.D.
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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