Survivorship bias: don’t take nutrition advice from a centenarian
Reading Why you should never take nutrition advice from a centenarian by Dr Bradley Elliot in The Conversation, 10 May 2024.
Imagine a group of 100 people, all of whom have smoked their entire life. As a group, the smokers would die earlier of cancers, lung disease or heart disease, but one or two might defy the odds and live to 100 years of age. Now imagine the intrepid journalist interviewing the lucky soul on their 100th birthday with that classic question: “What do you attribute your successful ageing to?”
“Smoking a pack a day,” says the newly minted centenarian.
The problem of “only counting those that are around to count but ignoring those that haven’t “survived”.”