Life Expectancy

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AuthorTopic: Life Expectancy
Shaper
Member # 5450
Profile Homepage #0
I recently read a news report claiming that the more you are on the internet/computer, the less your life expectancy is. So that got me thinking...

[ Tuesday, May 24, 2005 21:29: Message edited by: Sprung Spring ]

Poll Information
This poll contains 2 question(s). 47 user(s) have voted.

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I'll put a Spring in your step.

Polaris
Posts: 2396 | Registered: Saturday, January 29 2005 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
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I'm sure time spent planted in front of a monitor correlates strongly with sedentary, exercise-free lifestyle, which is a known cause (or lack of prevention) of all kinds of problems that can shorten your life.

—Alorael, who would like to see this finding before commenting further. As you stated it, the correlation doesn't even have to be statistically significant, nor does it necessarily have any causal link.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #2
I think I sit over 50 hours at a PC per week. Around 25-30 hours of that at work alone, and presumably more at home. Oh, and my area's life expectancy was 79 for women and 72 for men, but I was born in Manhattan, where apparently the average is 73 (that's not split up according to gender).

[ Tuesday, May 24, 2005 23:15: Message edited by: Arancaytar ]

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Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 5450
Profile Homepage #3
I spend about 30 hours on the computer. About 3 hours a week at school, the rest at home. Also, my citys life expectancy is at 77.6 (men) and 81.2 (women), and the average for the area (south west) is 78.4 (men) and 81.9 (women). I only know this because it was in the newspaper yesterday. It also said that 10 years ago the average for women in my area was 83.7, and 80.3 for men.

[ Tuesday, May 24, 2005 23:27: Message edited by: Spring, Sprung, its all the same ]

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I'll put a Spring in your step.

Polaris
Posts: 2396 | Registered: Saturday, January 29 2005 08:00
La Canaliste
Member # 5563
Profile #4
The thing to remember about life expectancy is that it only samples people who are dead.
It is the mean age at death of a particular group of people.

In a generation that is all dead, you can calculate various different life expectancies. Life expectancy at birth will be rather low because it takes into account all those children who die very young. Life expectancy at say 15 will be higher, because all those who die of childhood diseases and childhood accidents will no longer be in the sample, and so on.

Thus the research that produced this conclusion must have looked at a number of dead people, and related their age of death to the amount of time they spent at a computer. I would be interested to know how they asked the dead people how long they spent at the computer!
They should, to be fair, have controlled for any other factors such as gender, smoking, drinking, ilnesses such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease.
They should also have investigated whether factors that contributed to long computer hours also contributed to shorter life. For example: it is too dangerous to go outside therefore I communicate through the computer.

A group of living people can only have an estimated life expectancy.

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Posts: 387 | Registered: Tuesday, March 1 2005 08:00
Infiltrator
Member # 2836
Profile #5
Wow, everyone but me chose 'More' for the hours on the computer. I don't understand that.

[ Wednesday, May 25, 2005 02:46: Message edited by: The Stew Boy ]
Posts: 587 | Registered: Tuesday, April 1 2003 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #6
quote:
Originally written by saunders:

Life expectancy at say 15 will be higher, because...
... because all members of the sample who died below 15 will be taken out of the average. Take out the lower members, and the average rises - Mathematics! :P

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"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 1558
Profile #7
Why did you feel that you needed to clarify this? Saunders dealt with it.

I notice you just posted like 8 posts in a few minutes. Anxious to get 3k are we?

EDIT: Make that 9 posts.

[ Wednesday, May 25, 2005 03:39: Message edited by: An Upright stranger ]

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Posts: 1112 | Registered: Friday, July 19 2002 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #8
quote:
Originally written by The Stew Boy:

Wow, everyone but me chose 'More' for the hours on the computer. I don't understand that.
It's because like the income poll, it's scaled wrong. The week has seven days, and so if you spend three hours daily including the weekend, you are already off the scale. The scale should be upped at least to 42 or so, especially to include people who also use a computer at work.

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The Encyclopaedia Ermariana <-- Now a Wiki!
"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
Profile Homepage #9
What are people worried about? Medical Science will fix us up. I have no idea what the expected age is around these here parts, but I do know it's going up. Meh, as long as I experience true love I can die happy.

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"I am a living sign..."

Thus endeth this post.
Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #10
Work definitely puts me over the top, especially combined with the odd BoA scenario after work (don't know how I've been getting away with that lately!). I think the point made by Alo on exercise is key. I make an effort to run regularly in order to combat the dreaded force of office-butt. That, and switching to diet soft drinks (Yeehaw for Diet Coke made with Splenda!).

The one thing that staring at a computer screen all day will definitely do is ruin your eyes much more quickly.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #11
Actually, Stranger, Saunders' post explained the biological explanation for rising life expectancy. Aran posted the mathematical explanation.

Is there a point at which your estimated years left to live remains constant over several years?

—Alorael, who is comforted by knowing that his life expectancy will always be longer than he has been alive.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Master
Member # 1046
Profile Homepage #12
I'm a Comp Sci student. You'd think that I would spend hours upon hours at the computer, working or not.

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Posts: 3323 | Registered: Thursday, April 25 2002 07:00
Shaper
Member # 5437
Profile #13
quote:
Originally written by The Stew Boy:

Wow, everyone but me chose 'More' for the hours on the computer. I don't understand that.
Some have jobs working on computers, some play SW games all day, some post here all day, and some (like me) take all day to write Avernum scripts and come post stuff when they need a break or get frustrated with the scripting.

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Nena
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #14
http://www.nmfn.com/tn/learnctr--lifeevents--longevity

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Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Shaper
Member # 5437
Profile #15
It says I'll live to be 94 :eek:

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Nena
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Warrior
Member # 5822
Profile #16
quote:
Originally written by The Stew Boy:

Wow, everyone but me chose 'More' for the hours on the computer. I don't understand that.
that is because we are nerds (no offense ment just... well its true

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homerun
Posts: 85 | Registered: Tuesday, May 17 2005 07:00
Skip to My Lou
Member # 40
Profile Homepage #17
quote:
Originally written by Dolphin:

It says I'll live to be 94 :eek:
86 for me.

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Shaper
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Posts: 2395 | Registered: Friday, November 2 2001 08:00
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #19
It was either 84 or 87 for me. I don't remember. But apparently I'm obese.

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Bob's Big Date
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How telling.

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Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Master
Member # 4614
Profile Homepage #21
79 for me, though it doesn't ask computer time per week. I'm in the 10-20 zone, though I'd probably stay on it a lot longer had it not been for 2 little brothers to whom I have to delve out equal turns when they're done with their homework.

I got interested, so I tried a kind of "best-cased" scenario and got an age of 100. A worst-cased male stoner got me a 23. That DWI really hurts. :P

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Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
Profile #22
Accommodating to the test, my life expectancy is 88.
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
For Carnage, Apply Within
Member # 95
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Alec: Try turning off popup blocking.

Apparently, I'm going to die at 67. The heroin must be catching up to me.
Posts: 567 | Registered: Friday, October 5 2001 07:00
La Canaliste
Member # 5563
Profile #24
*sigh* as both Aran and I tried to point out, life expectancy doesn't have a lot to do with expected age of death.
It's purely retrospective, and you also have to include the age from which it is calculated.

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I am a pale shadow of the previous self.
quote:

Deep down, you know you should have voted for Alcritas!
Posts: 387 | Registered: Tuesday, March 1 2005 08:00

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