Comment

Six People Die Each Day of Alcohol Poisoning and Most Are Middle-Aged White Men-CDC

6
Tsuga1/06/2015 3:16:04 pm PST

I went there again just to see if I missed anything, and again failed to see any statement that supports your headline. For those who want to see for themselves, the full report is at cdc.gov.

Just because most binge drinkers are middle-aged, most are male, and most are white does not mean that more than 50% fit into all three categories at the same time. That’s not a valid statistical interpretation. Maleness, whiteness, and middle-aged status are not strongly correlated in the U.S. (However, if these groups overlapped to a very large degree then your headline would be correct.)

What makes more sense is to look for disproportionate representation of binge drinking within various groups. In that respect males are very overrepresented - 2:1 relative to females. Whites, young adults, and the elderly are somewhat overrepresented. The middle-aged actually have a lower rate than the elderly or the young but are far more numerous (due in part to a 30-year age range for that group in the study) so have greater numbers of binge drinkers.

I have really enjoyed the pages you’ve posted here, and this is a very worthwhile subject, but the headline is simply not demonstrated by the documentation.