A La Carte (10/17)

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/17/06
  • 3

Tuesday October 17, 2006

Health: Dr. Mohler discusses a new study which seems to have found a "'statistically significant relationship' between autism and early television viewing in children."

Conference: Adrian Warnock has a roundup of the liveblogging done at the recent International Baptist Conference here in Toronto.

Blogging: I forgot to post this last week. Joe Carter reflects on three years of blogging. Many of the same thoughts have been rattling inside my head as I've also passed the three-year barrier.

Comments (3)

1
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Rey • 10/17 @ 12:38pm
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I'm going to sound amazingly angry: that Mohler article and the study were just about the stupidest things I ever read.

They very quickly deal with the fact that autism has only really been growing in research recently which also ties in with the fact that television technology has been getting cheaper and more households have it.

They might as well do a study that Autism seems to have a direct correlation with cars. Children riding in Cars tend to be diagnosed with autism more than children who don't ride in cars. The numbers seem to support that there's a relationship and thus we should be careful with putting children in Cars.

Ridiculous.

I applaud research and but people have got to stop playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey with complex issues moreso Christians who then want to use it as another scare tactic.

2
Anonymous's picture
a comment from david • 10/17 @ 3:00pm
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Rey, that's a pretty poor comparison.

Find a child who doesn't ride in cars and who has been examined by a doctor, and go ahead and do your study. Virtually all children ride in cars, so there is no control group.

Not all children watch TV, and of those who do, not all watch the same amount. I watched a ridiculous amount of TV as a child. I know some kids who watch TV almost constantly. Many parents limit TV viewing in varying degrees. My kids watch no TV at all, and only occasional DVDs.

There is sufficient data available. Statistics can be compiled, comparisons can be made, and conclusions can be drawn.

Why is it so offensive to suggest that a mental disorder could be connected with TV watching?

3
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Rey • 10/17 @ 4:11pm
› visit my web site.

Actually my comparison was formulated in such a way to underscore the flaw in the research. People who ride in cars are more likely to bring their kids to the doctor. People who do not ride in cars are more likely not to. If the research shows that of the ones that show up to the doctor some of them are autistic then there's a relationship. It may not be a causal relationship, but there is a relationship.

That's what really ticks me off about the research. It's implying a causal relationship when it could be a ton of other factors which they nod to in the beginning of the paper but hurry through until they get to their conclusion.

IE: 1) A Family that subscribes to cable probably has more discretionary funds and more likely to go to the doctor to diagnose their child's symptoms thus having the data become part of a study while a family that doesn't subscribe to cable might have less discretionary funds and is more likely to visit an urgent care lab or clinic where data is not compiled and diagnosis are usually deferred to a specialist--which they wouldn't go to. Right there the numbers can get skewed.

2) Solid research on Autism didn't start until the time that TV's actually started booming. Trying to compile information by cable subscriptions and then backwards looking at tribal communities is just not going to give honest results. Subscription data can be compiled but in a segment of the population that doesn't even have health care, it won't. Why not test say Amish, Quakers, Mennonites, River Brethren who don't use TV's and spend most of their time outdoors to get a read and even in that case would that make the numbers skewed towards an ethnic group?

3) The research is not looking at economic growth leading to more people doing indoor activites versus outdoor activities. Indoor air can trap harmful air which may be a factor in autism. For instance, Radon that seeps into homes (who oddly enough are also Cable Subscribers) are more likely to have someone there that develops Breast Cancer. You wouldn't lay it on the feet of Television, the Computer, the Dishes or even the Bed: it's that the person is locked indoors with a radioactive gas.

Honestly, I don't care that they're attacking television. My kids watch maybe a half hour a day. I have a problem with the Big Picture of it all; it's bad research that can be applied to anything.

Sloppy Thinking leads to Ignorant Conclusions. What will happen when someone comes along and shows statistically that there's a relationship between murder and Christianity and that similarly there's a statistical relationship between Criminals becoming more peaceful when they embrace Islam in prison?

Think Big Picture.

Three years ago a study came out showing a statistic correlation between vaccinations and autism. In my church several families backed away from giving their kids vaccines--even though another study came out the same year that showed that it was still to be determined what the relationship was. Even now parents not having their kids vaccinated put the rest of the population at risk. ( http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20061012-112404-4131r )

It's a complex issued; simplifying it is sloppy. To then package it as a scare tactic is outright wrong.