The Wonders of Statistics

Tonight I was checking out Yahoo news like I usually do. Maybe later I'll blog about the changing face of media. But I came across an article on the main page linking suicide rates to shortness at birth. The actual article can be found here if you want to peruse it. What the article seems to be claiming is that males who are born shorter then the average length were more then twice as likely to commit suicide, especially by a violent means. They also said that weight at birth also seems to be a factor. Now I am going to stop right there... The problem is that it's not a controlled study and there is no ethical way to test cause and effect. So what they are not telling you is that there could be other extraneous factors that are also contributing. Take for instance the fact that babies who are born prematurely are more at risk for health issues and a number of other things. It is also a possiblity that shorter males tend to be teased more. I can't say for sure on that one... but in youth and adolescence being different then your peer group is not a good thing and can lead to being ostrasized. Really you can make stats say whatever you want them to. It's all about what agenda you are pushing. My only real point is that we do not live in a vacuum and there will always be extraneous variables that will impact the results. Secondly, whenever you see statistics question what they are really saying... and if they can really make that claim.