Saturday, July 16, 2011

Well, that's depressing

Annals of Epidemiology: Black men survive longer in prison than out
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1 comment:

Cham said...

Let's break this down, shall we?

The average mortality of a white female is 80 years, black female 76 years, white male 73 years and a black male 69 years.

We know that using a large amount of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and crappy food will reduce a life span considerably. In prison those substances are hard to get. Prison is also a great place to concentrate on an exercise program, which will increase your life span.

Men historically don't visit doctors as much was women. Black people have a mistrust of the medical community. Therefore, men often will suffer longer with a malady before seeking medical help. However, in prison, a trip to the doctor breaks up the monotony and medical care is free. A prisoner is more likely to seek medical help than a poor person.

Okay, I haven't said anything new. Let's get on to the good stuff. We're going to talk about social networks. It has been proven that people with a closed or limited social network have shorter lives and worse health that people with large and expanded social network. Older men often choose a limited social network, often one that consists only of interaction with their wife and very occasionally their adult children. In the US, this shortens their lifespan. Women often maintain expanded social networks consisting of an extended family, neighbors and friends. In prison you are packed in like rats. You can't help but have a very large expanded network of friends and acquaintances that number in the hundreds or thousands. Oddly enough, large social networks has proven to increase life span.

Here is that bad news, the mortality numbers are based on people who are dying now but were born in the 1930's and 40s. Guess what, with today's crappy lifestyles those mortality numbers are going to drop precipitously.

Sat Jul 16, 09:53:00 AM EDT

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