Did you hear the news today? People with cardiac disease and larger amounts of belly fat are more likely to die. Well, that is earth-shattering news to me! Who knew?
Obviously, my opening paragraph is tongue-in-cheek, laden with sarcasm. These studies that get funded - by our tax dollars as a rule - the outcomes of which make a person want to slap up another person along side the head, just like on NCIS, never cease to amaze, daze and confuse me. There is seldom a shortage of media coverage regarding inane studies with topics such as smoking is detrimental to your health, falling from an airplane may cause broken bones, eating tuna seven days a week - three times a day - may result in higher levels of mercury in the body, stepping in front of a bullet can be risky, etc.
Who authorizes the funding for these studies? Backing up one level, who thinks up the study-topic in the first place? It is almost as if an outcome is researched first.....such as "being sedentary leads to higher weight" and then a study cause-and-effect is designed to fit the outcome. For instance, to prove that being sedentary leads to higher weight, subjects - perhaps tweens - are sought to spend hours a day playing video games or watching television. These children may, or may not, already be overweight. Those that are overweight at the beginning of the study continue to be overweight and those that were not overweight may gain weight but the results confound the researchers, who become so excited about the obvious outcome that the details get published and we all say, "Well, who knew?"
At times, the obvious is just that, yet billions of funding dollars are wasted on studies that consume hard-earned American cash, time and energy that could, instead, be diverted on finding cures, feeding the hungry, or fixing the educational morass our country finds itself in.
Here are some suggestions for studies: Does better education result in more personal success?; Does providing basic necessities - such as food, shelter and water - result in increased well-being?
Ancora imparo
