Ms. Lu:

In your reporting of the  Statistics Canada community health report you
neglected to mention that within the report the first table indicated that a
full 58% of the variation in life expectancy among Canadian communities could be
explained by sociodemographic factors.  "Lifestyle choices" added no more than
an additional 10% variance.  Yet these "lifestyle" issues received ALL of your
attention.

I would hope that a health policy reporter would aspire to more than simply
repeating the press releases being handed to them and instead critically look at
the content of the report!

The attached article points out that "health behaviours" account for virtually
no variation in the death rates between people of different incomes.  The
journal Social Science and Medicine is one of the most prestigious journals
around.  They do not however have well paid media consultants to package their
messages for the media.

By the way there is virtually no evidence that dietary changes are effective in
prolongng life.  Take a look at the archives of the British Medical Journal at
http://www.bmj.com and read the article by Gary Taubes "The Soft Science of
Dietary Fat" which appeared in Science Magazine at

http://nasw.org/mem-maint/awards/01Taubesarticle1.html

Mr. Taubes won a National Association of Science Writers 2001 Science in Society
Journalism Award for this work.

Best wishes,

Dennis Raphael

(See attached file: lantz.pdf)

Dennis Raphael, PhD
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
School of Health Policy and Management
Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
tel: 416-736-2100, ext. 22134
fax: 416-736-5227
email: [log in to unmask]

Send one line: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] to unsubscribe
See: http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html to alter your subscription