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Cynicism Linked to Dementia

BBC article shows the numbers...


In 1998, volunteers, with an average age of 71, were asked to rate their agreement with statements such as "I think people would lie to get ahead", or "it is safer to trust nobody", said the researchers.

Scientists at the University of Eastern Finland said 46 people had developed dementia in the following decade.

Fourteen of the 164 people who showed high levels of cynical distrust in 1998 had developed dementia in this time, compared with nine out of the 212 people with low levels.
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It shows that 376 people developed dementia and that 23 of those people had various degrees of cynicism. Am I reading that correctly?

And then...

But Dr. Tolppanen said she had not accounted for people becoming depressed after the first stage of the assessment, or that the volunteers' depression might not have showed up adequately in questionnaires.

She added it was "really important" to replicate the findings on a much larger scale, to prove the link.
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I gotta be wrong because the numbers seem to show the opposite...

They saw 376 people that had developed dementia. Of those people 23 were cynical and 353 were not cynical.
 
Rubbish! What a load of absolute rubbish!

I mean they're only interested in getting research money for some pumped up reason.

And why wouldn't they, hey? Why wouldn't they?

Er... What was this thread about?



I will get my coat... unless one of you, whose names I have forgotten, has stolen it
 
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William Parcher said:
I gotta be wrong because the numbers seem to show the opposite...

They saw 376 people that had developed dementia. Of those people 23 were cynical and 353 were not cynical.
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No, according to the figures you quoted, 23 developed dementia of the 376 they were following.
 
Belgian thought said:
Rubbish! What a load of absolute rubbish!

I mean they're only interested in getting research money for some pumped up reason.

And why wouldn't they, hey? Why wouldn't they?

Er... What was this thread about?



I will get my coat... unless one of you, whose names I have forgotten, has stolen it
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HA!

Nominated.

I'll start a thread in a couple of days to remind you to vote for your own post, in case you forget.
 
Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "With the rising numbers of people affected with dementia, any addition our understanding of what might affect disease development is important."

He said that as only a small number of people in the study developed dementia, he would want to see a larger study conducted to be "more confident" in the proposed link.

Dr Ridley said the volunteers with a high level of cynical distrust could have been already beginning to develop dementia, and that depression, which may be both a risk factor and a symptom for dementia, could account for the cynicism.
"The biggest risk factor for dementia is age, by far," he said.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27603587
 
Bit more detail in this link.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140528163739.htm

A total of 622 people completed two tests for dementia, with the last one an average of eight years after the study started. During that time, 46 people were diagnosed with dementia. Once researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect dementia risk, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking, people with high levels of cynical distrust were three times more likely to develop dementia than people with low levels of cynicism. Of the 164 people with high levels of cynicism, 14 people developed dementia [8.5%], compared to nine of the 212 people with low levels of cynicism [4.2%].
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[I added the percentages.]

This leads me to notice that 23 other people out of 246 remaining got dementia [9.3%]. Did they have middling levels of cynicism?
 
RussDill said:
This isn't complicated:

"46 people had developed dementia"

"Fourteen of the 164 people who showed high levels of cynical distrust in 1998 had developed dementia in this time"

"nine out of the 212 people with low levels."
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Cynicals 8.53%

Non-cynicals 4.53%

But with such a small sample size, the margin of error is probably at least 2.5% (educated guess, I haven't worked it out)

This does not look much like a "smoking gun" to me.
 
I would think the main thing to question is the causal relationship. After all, isn't paranoia and aggression considered a symptom of dementia?

If it were the cynicism itself that causes the dementia would we not accept to see more teenagers with dementia?
 
I don't believe a word of this ****. How stupid; you'd have to be a moron to . . .

What are we talking about?
 
I find it very hard to believe any study that ... mmm, this is good sauerkraut. Three wars back we called sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and we called liberty cabbage "super slaw" and back then a suitcase was known as a "Swedish lunchbox." Of course, nobody knew that but me. Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling.
 
The most striking feature of these numbers is that fully 43.8% (almost half!!) of the sample of 376 subjects had "high levels of cynical distrust"!

Also surprising to me is that 56.2% (more than half!) of the subjects were apparently LACKING in adequate cynical distrust!

I'm not sure which is more surprising.
 
MuDPhuD said:
The most striking feature of these numbers is that fully 43.8% (almost half!!) of the sample of 376 subjects had "high levels of cynical distrust"!

Also surprising to me is that 56.2% (more than half!) of the subjects were apparently LACKING in adequate cynical distrust!

I'm not sure which is more surprising.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it was the Mercury in the Vaccines!!

What...? What's that you say...?
 
Not only was this study conducted in Finland; it was conducted in East Finland. 'Nuff said. :eek:
 
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