Say Goodbye to Humanities?

Cool Article in the NYT on the decline seen in humanities:


It's not too surprising since the cost of education has dramatically increased, students have desired more return for their education. Now many don't have the luxury of studying less directly applicable areas. I also wonder if humanities degrees were artificially high in the 60s and 70s from all those hippies. haha

I agree in the article's point that Obama benefit the humanities field in multiple ways. He is a role model to many and he seems to greatly respect literature and philosophy. He also plans to make it more affordable to go to school through programs like the GI Bill and increased student aid. However, if the economy doesn't turn around, those points will probably be moot.

Most Popular Big Cites

Another cool study by Pew Research Center:

I noticed, now that we're in the dead of winter, that most of the top cities are in warmer climates. I've never been to Denver (which seems to buck my observation), but maybe the air up there is just making them happy.

Stat of the Week: Hospitials as Hotels

According to a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research

"We also find that a one-standard-deviation increase in amenities raises a hospital's demand by 38.4% on average, whereas demand is substantially less responsive to clinical quality as measured by pneumonia mortality."

-It's interesting they used pneumonia mortality as a measure of clinical quality. I can only read the abstract, but I would assume that they adjusted for confounders and such like a good epidemiologist would do.

Media Attention and Risk Perception

From a Freaknomics interview of author Ben Sherwood:

Can a positive outcome to a crash like USAir 1549 change often unrealistic public perceptions of the fatality of plane crashes?

I doubt it. It’s incredibly safe to fly — your chances of dying on your next domestic flight are just one in 60 million — but many Americans are still petrified of air travel.

It’s no surprise: Plane crashes monopolize media coverage. Indeed, one MIT study found that airplane crash coverage on the front page of The New York Times was 60 times greater than reporting on HIV/AIDS per 1,000 deaths; 1,500 times greater than reporting on auto hazards; and 6,000 times greater than cancer.

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Now, the key to this passage is they only looked at the front page. Still, it's very interesting and telling on why our perceived risks rarely match the actual risks.

Women Concentrate on the Wrong Organ (too)

Fear is an interesting concept that I hope to explore more in the future.

In a 2005 study by Women's Health Research, over 1000 women were asked - which disease they feared the most. I was rather surprised they found the fear of Breast Cancer more than doubled Heart Disease. While Breast Cancer caused approximately 3% of the US deaths in 2005, over 22 percent have the most fear for the disease. On the other hand, heart disease accounts for 28.6 percent of diseases and only 9.7 percent consider their top fear!! I know the US society has placed a higher emphasis of breasts over heart, but I can't say I expected this.

Fear Rank																					Disease	Women's Most Feared Diseases										Cause of Death in Women					Difference
1																					Cancer (unspecified)	24.00%										21.60%					2.40%
2																					Breast Cancer	22.10%										3.24%					18.86%
3																					Heart Disease	9.70%										28.60%					-18.90%
4																					HIV/AIDS	9.30%										2%					7.30%
5																					Alzheimer’s Disease	4.60%										3.40%					1.20%
6																					Ovarian Cancer	2.70%										1.30%					1.40%
7																					Lung Cancer	2.40%										5.62%					-3.22%
8																					Diabetes	2.40%										3.10%					-0.70%
9																					Colon Cancer	1.60%										1.94%					-0.34%
10																					Stroke	1.20%										8.00%					-6.80%

So what are the possible explanations for this?

High Incidence?
-While the mortality of breast cancer is low, there is a significant amount of women living and bravely battling the disease. On the other hand, the same can be said about heart disease.

Feeling of Control
-While risk factors such as diet, obesity, and hormones have been established, the cause for breast cancer can still be considered quite a mystery. So most women likely believe that she could develop BC and don't have the power to control it. The risk factors for heart disease - (diet, physical activity, smoking) are a bit more established, so women's feeling of control may be stronger for CHD.

Public Exposure
-Another explanation is that breast cancer has had stronger activists, fundraisers, and lobbyists that push the disease into the mainstream. The general wisdom may be that since Breast Cancer is getting the same or more ad time than Heart Disease - women's risk of death are great for BC.

*Edit*
Age of Disease
Women may believe that they are more likely to get Breast Cancer at a younger age than Heart Disease. According to SEER the median age of dianosis is 61, while the median age of death is 69. For heart disease the average age of a first heart attack is around 70 years old (though the disease can be caught at a much earlier stage).

Women still believe it's a male disease
The stereotypical person with heart disease (at least in my mind) is an overweight, red faced guy in a suit. Women only comprise of about 25 percent of heart studies, and things like this need to change.

Conclusion:
Heart disease kills about 8 times the women than Breast Cancer. The medical community needs to do a better job about expressing this risk. Maybe when people go to their primary doc, they should be asked this "what disease do you fear the most" question. Then the education can begin. Another idea is instead of counseling by doctor, people should have a "medical counclier" who discuss peoples risk of disease and what they can do for prevention. According to the Women's Heart fact sheet only 2 percent of the NIH budget is spent on prevention, and that is just flat out wrong .

2005 data from:
CDC
Women's Health Research
Women's Heart Fact Sheet