Need help with some misleading statistics

[Bombero1956]

This was posted on another board I frequent. I need to know if they are accurate and if so what is the Investor Business Daily, a front group for some anti healthcare reform group?

A recent "Investor's Business Daily" article
provided very interesting statistics from a
survey by the United Nations International
Health Organization.

Percentage of men and women who survived a
cancer five years after diagnosis:
U.S. 65%
England 46%
Canada 42%


Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who
received treatment within six months:
U.S. 93%
England 15%
Canada 43%


Percentage of seniors needing hip
replacement who received it within
six months:
U.S. 90%
England 15%
Canada 43%


Percentage referred to a medical specialist
who see one within one month:
U.S. 77%
England 40%
Canada 43%


Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool)
per million people:
U.S. 71
England 14
Canada 18


Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income,
who say they are in "excellent health":
U.S. 12%
England 2%
Canada 6%

[Redstone]

1. It's bullshit. Those "statistics" are simply not true. Haven't you heard the right wing

spit out baldfaced lies before? This is just another example.

Redstone

[Bombero1956]

2. yeah I know

But I want to be able to refute this crap. I know that fudged the number but how? and what are the real numbers.

[paulsby]

3. go to the source

that's what i do , even when i LIKE the #'s. i don't trust media - left or rightwing. i trust primary sources more.

[anigbrowl]

6. don't bring a knife to a gunfight

you're better off staying out of such discussions if you don't know where to start looking for data sources. The Investor's business Daily is a newspaper, but if you've never heard of it then I suggest your research skills are lacking. Leave the argument to someone else who is better informed than you.

[Bombero1956]

8. don't take this the wrong way

but tact is not your long suit. I do know what the Investor's Business Daily is and what I was looking for was the source for their numbers. I spend most of my time researching NFPA standards and the last thing I want to do is more research. Thanks for the help though.

[anigbrowl]

9. You're right, it isn't

I suggest you would get that information far faster by searching on the IBD website, and/or using google to look for information about it, since as I recall their stats were debunked some time ago. Anyway, here is a refutation you can cite if you like: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html

[gratuitous]

4. The short answer, as always, is "Prove it."

Link to the Investor's Business Daily (it's a business newspaper) article? Where is the original survey? Should be online somewhere. Without links, without back-up, there's nothing to "refute." It's like chasing shadows in a cave. Where is the study? What was its methodology? What was the response rate? A bald layout of what look to be carefully culled questions is so suspicious as to be unworthy of your time without a LOT more information.

[harkadog]

5. Investors Business Daily is not a "front group" for anything.

It is a business newspaper similar to the Wall Street Journal although more focused on pure business stories than the WSJ.

[noamnety]

7. This appears to be accurate.

At least the big picture, I'm not bored enough to check the individual statistics. From http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115086.php which cites The Lancet Oncology:

"For all cancers, Europe had a much lower survival than the US. Survival for prostate cancer in the US is 91.9% compared to 57.1% in Europe - a 34% difference. The difference for breast cancer survival, however, is 10%. In Europe, the western countries generally had higher cancer survival rates: France led survival for rectum and colon cancers, Sweden led for breast cancer (82%), and Austria led for prostate cancer. Eastern Europe, on the other hand, did not perform as well. Slovakia had the lowest survival rates for rectal cancer in men and breast cancer, and Poland had the lowest survival rates for the other studied cancers."