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Are the Statistics We Read Romanticized?

by Terra Atrill

3outof2.jpgsta·tis·tic (stə-tĭs’tĭk) (American Heritage Dictionary)
n.

  1. A numerical datum.
  2. A numerical value, such as standard deviation or mean, that characterizes the sample or population from which it was derived.
  3. One viewed as a nameless item of statistical information: got laid off and became another statistic in the slumping economy.

Imagine searching for statistics on the amount of people regularly affected by headaches. You knew you weren’t alone, but you didn’t know that many people suffered, too. Such is the nature of statistical data on headaches - it’s so grandiose, it’s unbelievable.

This article lays out the author’s point of view. He intrigued me by humourously starting off with the classic patient offering their symptoms of three attacks a week, each lasting four days. When did the 12-day week start? I should be accomplishing a lot more!

This site’s article mentions that ’studies’ have shown that roughly 45 million American suffer from chronic headaches annually; women make up 44% of those affect, men the remaining (obviously). Mathematically, this means that approximately 15% of the current estimated US population are chronically feeling the brain pains. However, even in this article, they state that one in six people are affected, then later 6.54% of the population. Did the amount of people in the states drop significantly since the text’s publication? Can this, in any way be blamed on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

This does not compute.

Another example tells us that the last one’s numbers are correct, word for word. So now we’ve discovered a lack of mathematical ability and plagarizing. This same source noted a 1995 study in Australia - apparently 15% of those guys use headache medications. So, is 8.46% of the continent more subject to headaches? Or do they just enjoy popping pills?

So, before you believe what you read, pull out the calculator and tell me what one sixth is, as a percent. Then rest your weary head.

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