Many people in the U.S. do not walk, bike or engage in other forms of active transportation, missing an important opportunity to improve their cardiovascular health, concludes a new study.
made the rounds on twitter today and I have to say, christ alive
That’s not how statistics works. Even if the 10m walkers are maximally represented among dog-keeping households (instead of more evenly distributed), with no more than one walker per dog household (also extremely unlikely to not be clustered), at most 50% of dogs get walks from their owners.
Also, I have 0 dogs and I walk/run/bike 30-150 minutes a day.
Even if the 10m walkers are maximally represented among dog-keeping households (instead of more evenly distributed), with no more than one walker per dog household (also extremely unlikely to not be clustered), at most 50% of dogs get walks from their owners.
Luckily, this study does not seem to be saying that at all.
Using cross-sectional data from the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Furie and his colleague, Mayur M Desai, Ph.D., associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health were surprised to find that less than one quarter of U.S. adults in a nationally representative sample reported walking or bicycling for transportation for more than 10 minutes continuously in a typical week.
“For transportation” is important here. I walk my dog twice a day but I wouldn’t describe that as “transportation.”
This is yet another science headline that wildly misrepresents the study it’s allegedly reporting on.
Was more of a hopeful estimate than anything. From what I’ve seen of American dog owners they seem to just have dogs run around in their backyards and call it at that.
Could roughly work out to the 25% of Americans that walk for more than ten minutes being the dog walkers of those households.
That’s not how statistics works. Even if the 10m walkers are maximally represented among dog-keeping households (instead of more evenly distributed), with no more than one walker per dog household (also extremely unlikely to not be clustered), at most 50% of dogs get walks from their owners.
Also, I have 0 dogs and I walk/run/bike 30-150 minutes a day.
Luckily, this study does not seem to be saying that at all.
“For transportation” is important here. I walk my dog twice a day but I wouldn’t describe that as “transportation.”
This is yet another science headline that wildly misrepresents the study it’s allegedly reporting on.
Ah so the data was pre-Uber, pre-GrubDash, pre-Instacart, 10 years pre-Covid.
Was more of a hopeful estimate than anything. From what I’ve seen of American dog owners they seem to just have dogs run around in their backyards and call it at that.