Stephen Gould’s article can be interpreted in a variety of different, but mostly positive ways. After discovering that he had a rare form of un-curable cancer, he set out to discover what exactly his “median life expectancy” of eight months meant and where he would fall in this disheartening distribution. After reviewing various medical journals, he found the distribution to look exactly like he imagined: very rightly skewed. But, being that he was young and the cancer had been found early, he determined that he would most likely fall into that rightly skewed distribution, meaning that he would have more than the “average” eight months of life left. While finding this new information and being subject to it, he learned that his perceiving daunting future wasn’t as dreadful as it appeared. With the help of his previous biological knowledge and positive attitude, he came to conclude that his life expectancy, his life clock, wasn’t what mattered most. Gould determined that “median isn’t the message”. Meaning, his life expectancy wasn’t what mattered, it wasn’t even accurate. Statistical data can so easily be misinterpreted because of outliers and medical conditions can vary so radically. So, Gould found that his life clock wasn’t what mattered as much as his …show more content…
In Gould’s case, this meant that he had 50% chance of living past eight months. But another concept prevails in this article regarding median, that being how easily data can be misinterpreted. Gould makes a point to revel this information in the beginning of his article, quoting Hilaire Belloc statement "statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death." This quote implies that statistics, can be quite troubling for those facing its probable outcomes. But, according to Gould, if correctly understood, they can be “profoundly nutrient and
live past the average living age. Buettner (2009) states only 10 percent on how a person lives are
In the movie Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth, it compared the lives of four individuals, Taylor, Young, Anderson, and Turner, in different locations, race, and socioeconomic background. The scale of difference between this group of people is that it goes from financially stable and healthy individuals to individuals with lower income and poorer health. This wealth-health gradient reflects that those who have easier access to healthier lifestyles (i.e. running outside without the concern of safety) are more likely to have a higher life expectancy than those who are in living environments that are not as developed and lack healthier options of nutrition. The difference of the average life expectancy scaled down from Jim Taylor whose neighborhood had an average life expectancy of 80 years, Young’s 75.3 years,
I. Imagine yourself or a loved one just diagnosed with a terminal debilitating illness. You are given at best six months to live. During those six months your prognosis will turn from bad to worse. You know you will eventually be in an uncontrollable amount of persistent pain. You will eventually lose the ability to feed, dress, or bathe and toilet yourself. Your once very active life will become one
• Identify how Kubler-Ross’ five stages of death and dying play a critical role in helping this couple, identifying and explaining what stage each person is in.
As mentioned in a Frontline interview with Gawande about Being Mortal, life’s two ‘unfixables’ are aging ang dying ("Dr. Atul Gawande On Aging, Dying And "Being Mortal"). Despite this well-known fact, most physicians and patients alike are overwhelmed by the concept of death. Moreover, in times of medical crisis, terminally ill patients allow themselves to be given “the medical equivalent of lottery tickets” in the hopes of making a miraculous recovery (Gawande 171). The allowance of end-of-life decisions to be controlled by the concepts of medicine or technology is a dangerous path which shows a lack in pragmatism regarding death (Sinclair). Although the overall avoidance of the
First, there is Jim Taylor, Hospital CEO, District 16; second, Tondra Young, Clinical Lab Supervisor, District 24; lastly, Corey Anderson, Floor Technician, District 21. The population of each district decreases in average income, education level and life expectancy than its preceding district, beginning with district 16, Jim Taylor’s district. District 16 has an average combined household income of approximately $120,000/ annually. In this district, 65% of the population has a college degree and the life expectancy in this district is 82 years. Whereas, Tondra Young’s district, district 24, has an average combined household income of $70,000/annually and 15% of the population has a college degree. The life expectancy of district 24 is 75 years, that’s 7 years less than district 16. In district 21, Corey Anderson’s district, the average combined household income is less than $50,000/ annually and only 5% of the districts population have college degrees. Consequently, the life expectancy of district 21 is 70 years, 5 years less than district 24 and 12 years less than district 16 (Adelman 2008). The results of this study are indisputable: there is an obvious correlation between social/economic status and health status. As each districts average income and education level decrease, average life expectancy coincides. This leads to the next question: why does social and economic status so greatly influence health status?
The main message of this article is to relay that not everyone is the median. There are many different effects that lead to the distribution of points on a curve, and in this case, death is not set point that has been predetermined by statistics. Gould wanted to share that
The United States is one of the countries profoundly affected by health disparities and inequities. One may argue this is attributable to its diverse ethnic and racial groups and wide geographical area coverage, but still, it is extremely undesirable to record that extent of health disparities and inequities. The 78.8 years life expectancy is just the average. Some states have a life expectancy of high as 86 years whereas as low as 68 years. The standard deviation of life expectancy across the states is very huge. For instance, the life expectancy in Summit County, Colorado is 86.6 years whereas in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, the life expectancy is 66.8 years (Welch, 2017). A margin of about 20 years is troubling, especially for a developed country like the United States. These disparities also apply for other health indices from region to region and ethnic group to another. Hence, this agenda is on the right
According to Gawande (2014), modern scientific capability has profoundly altered the course of human life. People live longer and better than at any other time in history. But scientific advances have turned the processes of aging and dying into medical experiences, matters to be managed by health care professionals. And we in the medical world have proved alarmingly unprepared for it. This reality has been largely hidden, as the final phases of life become less familiar to people.
If you only had a few months left to live due to a disease how would you choose to live? Would you let it take control of you and wither away, or would you make the most out of your final days by doing all you could? In the novel Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom gains a new understanding of life’s greatest lessons through his dying professor’s, Morrie Schwartz, eyes. This book helped open my eyes as well and realize what is truly important in your life and the things you should make a priority. Between our textbook, Social Gerontology, and the novel, Tuesday’s with Morrie, they both touched a lot of important key points of aging and what a person is ultimately faced with as they are nearing their death. The top three
Mean and standard deviation were used to describe the length of labor in the study. These were appropriate because mean (M) is used to calculate interval (and ratio) data, thus, the length of labor in interval data.
In England the report discovered that people living in the poorest areas were on average more likely to die seven years younger than those living in the
rather than viewing the second half of life as a time of progressive deterioration in
Gregor Mendel, conceived as Johann Mendel, was an Austrian researcher and friar hailed as the "Father of present day hereditary qualities" for his spearheading research in the field of heredity. He was a minister in Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas in Brno where he functioned as an instructor. He had a profound enthusiasm for herbal science which drove him to lead to investigate pea plants. Enlivened by the work of a scholar named Franz Unger, he started his analyses in the religious community's sprawling patio nurseries. Throughout his review he watched that there were seven qualities in the pea plants, and two types of every trademark. These attributes included seed shape and unit shape not withstanding plant tallness and seed shading. Mendel
The author presents a few evidence to support their argument in a way that one’s insight can be clearer of what is written. As said before socioeconomic status influences multiple disease outcomes, where it discovered that the society’s poor and less privileged people lives in the worst health and die much younger than the more privileged people. It is said that they are at more risk of death for those being at their lowest