Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Another stupid study out of Harvard

This one says drinking soft drinks increases the likelihood that teens will carry weapons.

The abstract of the study, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Vermont School of Economics, says:
Adolescents who drank more than five cans of
soft drinks per week (nearly 30% of the sample) were
significantly more likely to have carried a weapon and to
have been violent with peers, family members and dates
(p<0.01 for carrying a weapon and p<0.001 for the
three violence measures). Frequent soft drink
consumption was associated with a 9 - 15% point
increase in the probability of engaging in aggressive
actions, even after controlling for gender, age, race, body
mass index, typical sleep patterns, tobacco use, alcohol
use and having family dinners.
The study was conducted in Boston high schools. Boston is already a city at war with soft drink consumption.  Which begs the question of how much bias is cooked into the study and its results.

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