Media Blog Post 1
According to a new study published in the journal Neurology, the amount of Alzheimer's cases is rising at a much higher rate than previously thought. This study found that by 2050, 13.8 million people will be affected by this disease. This study examined 1,913 senior citizens above the age of 65 in the Chicago area. Each subject was evaluated for Alzheimer's between 1997 and 2011. The volunteers were evaluated every three years to check for symptoms of dementia. According to the article, during the study, 402 new people were diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The researchers then used inferential statistics to compare the results of their sample to the entire U.S. population.
The results:
"3.3% of 65- to 74-year-olds, 18.5% of 74- to 84-year-olds and 36.6% of those 85 and older would have Alzheimer's by the midpoint of the century."
Unlike some of the studies we have seen in class, this study has a large amount of subjects who have met specific age and health standards, while still representing many different backgrounds. The article says the participants came from various ethnic, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, although it does not specify the demographics. One thing this study could do to get a more diverse group, and possibly more data to back up their future nation wide predictions, would be to look at Alzheimer's patients in other regions of the United States, rather than just Chicago. Trends may or may not be the same in other areas of the country, but more data could solidify their predictions.
This article also shows how inferential statistics plays a role in preparing for the future. In response to the Alzheimer's problem, the National Alzheimer's Project was created in 2011. The main goal is to study and create drugs that can treat or slow the disease by 2025. Federal funding for Alzheimer's research has also increased since 2011 by $50 million dollars, and possibly another $30 million this year.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/06/science/la-sci-alzheimers-disease-boom-20130207
Vanessa,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I agree that the researchers followed all the "rules" to gain reasonable results. However, I also agree that they should pull people from other parts of the U.S. and not just pull people from the Chicago population. In fact, I wonder if it would be even more beneficial to pull people from other regions throughout the world. Then, not only could we see if this trend is happening in the U.S., but in other countries as well.
Vanessa,
ReplyDeleteI find your post deeply interesting, specially your emphasis on statistics as a tool for prediction an inference. So far in class, we have mostly focused on the "recollection" part of statistics and not in its uses as inference tools. I agree with the necessity to use a more diverse group of individuals, as well as a larger sample in the research could yield results that could extrapolate to a population as a whole. The use of Chicago as a common city for sampling was discussed in class, but given the lack of certainty on many of the factors that promote alzheimer, i find it hard to conclude from chicago that the US rate as a whole is increasing. It might be possible that alzheimer is more common in cities ? maybe it is just more likely to be diagnosed in cities due to better healthcare access ? I look forwards to see more of your posts,
Xavier Maqueo