Zum Seitenende Übersicht Artikel Home & Impressum
First the link to this week’s complete list as HTML and as PDF.
In 1990 the rate of child deaths under five in the bottom quarter of countries was 14 times that of the top quarter. By 2011 that gap had risen to 23 times. So how do nature justify their ridiculous claim of a closing gap? The absolute difference in numbers of deaths per 1000 was higher in the less advantaged countries, which is trivial. When you start at 13 per thousand you simply can’t lower that by 70 per thousand, can you?. In 1990 all the cheap and efficient improvements had long been made by the top countries and they still managed to lower their rate by a further 62 %, while the bottom ones only achieved a measly 38 % in spite of having all the cheap and easy advances still open to them. This is about the most misleading headline I’ve seen in a long time and seeing it’s nature and not The Sun we’re talking about an absolute disgrace.
Although I’m highly partisan and collect every study I can find in support of breast feeding, Deoni et al. is an archetypal example of a total non-result with no difference whatever between groups. Statistical shenanigans will pry significance from the most random of data but presenting these as a meaningful result is classic Cargo Cult Science.
Zum Anfang Übersicht Artikel Home & Impressum