A recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) study compared death rates for people with health insurance a
nd people without health insurance. This study included anyone who completed the survey between 1986 and 1994. The study tracked these people through 2000. The study attempted to control for factors such as education, income, smoking, drinking, and obesity. The American Journal of Public Health published an article about this NHANES study. The following headlines appeared in the news based on this article. Which headline is an appropriate summary of this study? a. Lack of insurance to blame for almost 45,000 deaths (ABC News)
b. 45,000 American deaths associated with lack of insurance (CNN)
c. No Health Insurance, Higher Death Risk: 45,000 U.S. Deaths Per Year May Be Linked to Lack of Health Insurance (WebMD)
The most appropriate headline is C. which was able to capture both the scientific approach for reporting research- based on probability- and the societal norm as well.
The report made us understand that, two things are correlated here:lack of insurance and an higher death risk among the populace.
It further went on to state the probability that these two may have a correlation.
The headline will avail the researcher of a research error as well as allay the fear of the general populace and and also prompt them to read the paper in order to know about the research.
