The progesterone finding is particularly interesting. I wonder if it's common in the US to prescribe progesterone before 14 weeks gestation.
Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Race is often shorthand for ethnicity, and it's true that to a certain extent different ethnic groups have genetic differences of medical relevance. While variation within groups is generally larger than that between groups, that doesn't mean ethnicity is medically useless as data point. Classic examples are among those the OP listed. The most visible are probably lactose tolerance (significantly more common in Europ…
> Race is often shorthand for ethnicity Huh? In medical contexts I've always understood race as a person's genetic background and ethnicity as a person's cultural background. The two often don't align as many might expect: an adopted child, for example, could be racially South Asian but ethnically French because they speak French, enjoy French food and culture, perceive their self as French, etc.
> I've always understood race as a person's genetic background and ethnicity as a person's cultural background
I've heard that maybe once every 20 years. It just isn't the way the language is used. It may not be anyone's fault, but the conflation is the way it is AFAIK.
Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#23The progesterone finding is particularly interesting. I wonder if it's common in the US to prescribe progesterone before 14 weeks gestation.
It is common in the US and Canada to use progesterone during early gestation for IVF pregnancies, to support the endometrium after embryo implantation.
Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Race does not exist... therefore there won't be a genetic difference in average outcomes between different people groups. It is useful to think of variation from person-to-person but it is impossible to make comparisons between ethnic groups/races because no substantive differences exist among the various human populations. Probably the study results you reference are a result of different environments...
Who brainwashed you bro? Are you trying to say ethnicity doesn't exist? There won't be genetic differences (and physical non-genetic differences) between different groups? This is how far leftist propaganda has gone :( EDIT: and typical that I get downvoted without reason for merely suggesting that it is silly to claim that ethnicity doesn't exist (which is how the parent is using the word 'race').
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Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#25I wonder how much of the data generated isn't true of non-Chinese people. NPR goes into detail on why diverse clinical trials are necessary: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/12/16/4596667... > The blood thinner clopidogrel, or Plavix, doesn't work in the 75 percent of Pacific Islanders whose bodies don't produce the enzyme required to activate the drug. For them, taking the medication is like taking a p…
Race does not exist... therefore there won't be a genetic difference in average outcomes between different people groups. It is useful to think of variation from person-to-person but it is impossible to make comparisons between ethnic groups/races because no substantive differences exist among the various human populations. Probably the study results you reference are a result of different environments...
This is ridiculous sorry. As an example, thalassemia is common (>20% carrier rate) in South and Southeast asia. Many thalassemia carriers will present as mildly anemic. In asia, the doctors will often test for thalassemia first, because taking iron if you carry thalassemia and have mild anemia as a result, can cause permanent injury. Sometimes, pregnant women are told to take iron, and develop hemochromatosis, which puts both them and the baby at risk of major complications.
Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#26The progesterone finding is particularly interesting. I wonder if it's common in the US to prescribe progesterone before 14 weeks gestation.
It's commonly given to women who have had repeat miscarriages, like my wife. However, her doctor also prescribes it after birth for women with PPD, because it has been shown to alleviate the symptoms, and I imagine that if my wife were to present with that, she would be put on it.
It's also common to give it to women who have short luteal phases and want to conceive.
Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Race is often shorthand for ethnicity, and it's true that to a certain extent different ethnic groups have genetic differences of medical relevance. While variation within groups is generally larger than that between groups, that doesn't mean ethnicity is medically useless as data point. Classic examples are among those the OP listed. The most visible are probably lactose tolerance (significantly more common in Europ…
> Race is often shorthand for ethnicity Huh? In medical contexts I've always understood race as a person's genetic background and ethnicity as a person's cultural background. The two often don't align as many might expect: an adopted child, for example, could be racially South Asian but ethnically French because they speak French, enjoy French food and culture, perceive their self as French, etc.
That's maybe true but in that case also quite incomplete and doesn't actually conflict with my point. Ethnicity is a readout of where that person grew up, those cultural touchtones reflect that you have a bunch of people living in the same geographical area. These people scramble their genes together, but because they're in the same area, they would naturally begin to diverge genetically from those in other areas.
You're right that ethnicity and the common definitions of race (i.e. skin tone, hair color/texture, dominant facial features) don't always correlate as well as expected, but that doesn't stop it from being used that way. Another example in addition to yours would be someone who is north african and someone who is south african may have quite different tolerance to lactose because of different prevalences of cattle herding in those regions of the world (Lactose tolerance arises very quickly when humans raise cattle). Still an outside observer would label them both "Black", despite their ethnicities and genetic makeups being different.
In short, ethnicity/race/genetics are all correlates but not absolutes. You have to do a follow-up test, you have to be careful in your assumptions or you'll make a mistake.
Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#28When I first started evaluating research, I was able to deconstruct studies and show why they were bad left and right. I thought I was so smart, but then when I started trying to do my own research it became obvious that we operate under the same limitations as everyone else -- how do we design the best imperfect study given the limitations of money, time, people, and geography?
In that context, I think this study is great. It is always true that the results of a study in a narrow group do not extrapolate to a larger group and it is good to be aware. However, that doesn't mean it can't generate hypotheses for a larger group (which can then be studied). The researchers likely would not have had the pull to generate an equivalent amount of data and follow-up data for a world-wide population, but I'm glad they did the best they could rather than spend their day posting criticisms on HackerNews.
Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#29"The cohort’s leaders recruit babies born at the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center. Only families planning to live in the southern Chinese city for a long time have been recruited" Limited ethnic and geographical selection of participants means this 'slew' of data will likely be less valuable than this article lets on. Helpful to that immediate area? yes.
I have to say, the impressive scale of this data collection probably means it will still have some uses. And for Chinese health & medicine, it's simply a massive deal, if everything was done correctly.
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Re: Gigantic study of Chinese babies yields slew of health data
#30"The cohort’s leaders recruit babies born at the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center. Only families planning to live in the southern Chinese city for a long time have been recruited" Limited ethnic and geographical selection of participants means this 'slew' of data will likely be less valuable than this article lets on. Helpful to that immediate area? yes.
It's better than using only USA data for the whole world...