Comments about ‘Life expectancy of Mormons exceeds general population’

I wonder how these statistics will be argued against. I can’t wait to read the creative, persistent, unreasonable, habitual skepticism.

This is the most rediculous and bias thing I think I have read in a long time. I am not a mormon and I run 5 miles a day and am in real good health. I work with active mormon's that drink a 12 pack of diet coke and eat fast food every day. Look around you, every where you go in Utah there is a heart attack waiting to happen. Didn't you know having a glass of read wine is evil but jello salad no problem.

Staying healthy is something that Mormons are good at... I'll give them that much. Not to mention, their close family ties is probably also a factor.

exercise is not the only way to good health. People with less stress and happier lives live longer along with food consumption. I agree alot of Mormons drink alot of Caffinated/ carbinated drinks but not all and even that is unknown how many. the stats may have been taken in a healthier area than Utah's centers Utah county and Salt lake county. Alot of factors need to be taken into account and not just the report that was given and we will find the truth behind why

Who is paying for this survey, and what purpose does it serve? What would the results show if a similar survey was done on Catholics versus "the general population". I'd like to see a sampling of "the general population". They probably went down and rounded up a bunch of homeless drunks and drug addicts from Pioneer Park. I'd rather really live for 74 years than exist in that mundane lifestyle for 100 years. Not to mention having to wear those ridiculous underwear. The definition of self righteous.

The report sounds skewed the results reflect life styles not religous belief. I submit that I don't smoke, I don't drink, I excercise and eat well. I am not over weight and I am in excellent health. I have a great outlook on life and look forward to each day. My mom is 84 and my grand mother passed at 92 they live/lived a similar life..do all
Mormons live longer than 92? My dad a smoker passed at 71, and grandfather passed at 71 non-smoker. So I now need to adopt the Mormon religion to live longer? Not!

Wow, TKO and Elipt - is there a reason this seems to have struck such a negative note with you both?
TKO - Your logic - or the lack thereof is amazing... I believe the article said it was UCLA doing the study - as a Californian I know UCLA is most definetly not BYU, so I believe the facts would not be biased either for or against - they are simply facts.
"Researchers at UCLA are constantly reviewing data from a 25-year-long survey that followed actively-practicing LDS Church members in California starting in late 1979."
Elipt - you sound like someone with an axe to grind, and simply make no sense at all.
Perhaps you should both read the article again - a lot more slowly this time - to fully grasp what it is saying.

A study is not biased, anecdotes, such as elipt's stories are. Any person with an understanding of statistics would agree that one time events and stories don't mean a thing. And considering they are from UCLA in California, I'm sure they didn't go to Pioneer Park in Utah and round up a bunch of "homeless drunks and drug addicts." If they did I'm sure the difference would be far greater anyway. And TKO please don't knock a sign of someone's religion. I would hope you wouldn't make fun of the Star of David or the crucifix in the face of a Jew or Catholic. I agree with nothing to do that it reflects lifestyle, but this is a practicing Mormon's lifestyle. Studies find trends, they don't reveal secrets. Extrapolating that one needs to be Mormon to live longer is ridiculous. All the study says is that practicing Mormons live longer than the general population. Nothing more, nothing less.

elipt | 9:06 a.m.

Don't over-react. The study didn't say "Every" LDS person lives longer than every person in the general population. The study was about averages/norms.

Realise the YOU... are not necessarily a perfect example of the average person in the general population. Most Americans don't run 5-miles/day, eat health, etc, etc, etc. And likewise, the average LDS person doesn't drink a 12-pack of diet coke daily, eat nothing but fast-food and jello.

It's not logical to compare the extremes.

You know the study is about averages. But then you take youreself (not representative of the norm/average) and compare THAT against the 12-pack-drinker (again, not representative of the norm). And then pretend to get offended because you claim the study said you won't live as long as the tinny skewed sample of assumed-LDS people you observed at work or around town???

Your just being silly!

There will be people in the general_population that live longer (ie you) AND people in the LDS population that live longer than the norm. But the study compared AVERAGE_LDS to AVERAGE_general_population. Not your silly anomalies.

RE: fred
If you are going to conduct research like this you cannot pre select the thing you are attempting to measure. If you are going to make a blunt statement like "apples are nasty". You cannot pre select rotten apples. You have to look at all of them. They are taking less than 2% of the mormon population and making a generalized deduction. And if you think that's o.k. you need to probably hit the gym this week.

Re: 2 My point is that the AVERAGE_LDS and the AVERAGE_general_population are one in the same.

The study dataset has data on a RANGE of LDS members, but FOR THIS PARTICULAR STUDY, the analysts just wanted to see how the life expectancy of members who “don't smoke, attend church weekly, have 12 years of education and are married” compares to the general population.

That’s most certainly NOT your “average Mormon” vs your “average American”.

The study only reported results, it did not even pretend to say WHY this particular subset of LDS members lives longer, it just said that they did. As has been said before, read carefully and educate yourself.

One could take a similar subset of the general population and do a much more in-depth study to determine a causal relationship between a certain behavior and a longer life expectancy, but that was not what THIS study was about.

(cont)

(cont)

This sentence should never have made it past DN editors: “even researchers are surprised at how much longer Church members live than the general population”.

It should say: “even researchers are surprised at how much longer CERTAIN Church members live than the general population”.

As it stands, it makes it seem that, as long as your name is simply on LDS church records, you will live longer than the average person, which is just not correct.

You cannot draw ANY conclusions from this study other than this - LDS members who don't smoke, attend church weekly, have 12 years of education and are married, ON AVERAGE, tend to live longer than the GENERAL U.S. population.

You can't even say that it is BECAUSE of any one, or more, of those factors that they do, you can only say that they do, not WHY.

Elipt,

if they're one in the same, why is the same population living much longer than the same population?

Please help

Maybe living longer isn't such a great thing anymore with Obama at the controls!! I hear that over taxation can kill !!!

Hansentw,

No, it doesn't seem like it's saying every LDS person lives longer. If I said "NBA players make more than the genearl population" would you infer that not a single non-NBA player makes more than any NBA player?

If I said "Haitians are not living as comfortably as Americans" would you infer that there is not a single Haitian living more comfortably than the poorest American?


If I said Democrats supported obamacare would you believe I was saying 100% of democrats supported obamacare?

Your argument is weak.

"Elipt,

if they're one in the same, why is the same population living much longer than the same population?

Please help"





Because the Group picked and choose who was involved in the study... I bet you any amount of money that I can come up with a study where the results say that LDS members have less of a life span then others... especially if I can pick which LDS members I want, and which "others" I want...

RE: CHRIS B

Because if you select the best from a population and analyze it you will get the results you want. My point is that they would have to take into account EVERY mormon not just the healthy ones. So find a ward we can conduct and experiment on. This is it.

1. Find the time they meet and I will bring a scale.
2. everyone of them has to stand on the scale, regardless of age, race, or gender.

I cannot give you the exact details but we will find that they are not healthy at all. And if you wanna take a deeper look everyone of them will give an account of diabetes, cancer, etc.

We will preform the same experiment anywhere you want and the numbers will vary slightly but not by a significant factor.

Bottom line if you wanna make a rough generalization about a group.you have to take EVERYTHING into account. In this case everyone.

I have nothing against mormons. But I do think that actions speak louder than words.
Perhaps mormon leaders tell there congregations how to live healthy long lives, but the majority of them don't listen.

I would like to point out as well that this study was based in CA - where people are more health conscious in general. Please don't generalize it to everyone who is Mormon or from Utah. But, don't dismiss the fact that no smoking, no alcohol, more time at home with the family, and a day of "rest" in the week are likely factors that lead to longer lifespan.

If they change the article to (Life expectancy of "HEALTHY" Mormons exceeds general population). Then I would agree. However, the article and the title do not agree. The problem lifeisgood322. Take some one that is mormon or not, give them(no smoking, no alcohol, more time at home with the family, and a day of "rest" in the week). And putting probability aside, you will find that whether they are mormon or not they will live relativley as long.