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Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

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Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#141

Post by Marsymars »

jerlam wrote: post #138
arielweisberg wrote: post #3

Can video games provide similar benefits?

Most modern open-world games have waypoint indicators and on-screen minimaps, if not teleportation, because memorizing and navigating and traversing through the video game map is not particularly fun.

Some years ago I participated in a study where I lied down in an MRI machine and had to navigate in a video game maze. (Custom Half-Life 2 level, IIRC.)

Every 60 seconds or so I'd be teleported to a fresh location in the maze and given an instruction like "find the green door". I have no idea how I did compared to the other participants, but I found the maze/task to be both difficult and not at all fun.

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#142

Post by jere »

akamaka wrote: post #123

I wonder if alcohol consumption plays a role here, since it is a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s. A taxi driver who works 60 hours a week will have very little time left over for drinking, whereas pilots have relatively short work hours where they actually need to be sober.

> A taxi driver who works 60 hours a week will have very little time left over for drinking

That's plenty of time to be a full blown alcoholic.

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#143

Post by mcmoor »

jodrellblank wrote: post #132
Barrin92 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the paper points out that's accounted for in the analysis, because shockingly enough to most internet commentators researchers know that they need to control for confounding variables https://www.bmj.com/content/387/bmj-2024-082194

> " researchers know that they need to control for confounding variables " 'Why ‟controlling for a variable” doesn't (usually) work' - https://dynomight.net/control/ Other things that don't work, including four other 'controlling for a variable' entries at items 39 through 43: https://dynomight.net/things/

Also https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... and https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/26/stop-confounding-yours...

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#144

Post by Petersipoi »

bastawhiz wrote: post #102
glitchc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are likely studying individuals that retired without getting fatally stabbed or shot on the job.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that not even a double digit percentage of taxi drivers' careers are ended due to violent attacks. Taxi driver doesn't even appear in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics top 20 most dangerous jobs.

> not even a double digit percentage

That's actually crazy if that's as low as you dare guess. I would have easily guessed it was like, a fraction of a percent. 1 in 10 would be fucking nuts.

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#145

Post by [deleted] »

harrall wrote: post #83
cortic wrote: post #30

Taxi Drivers: The mean age at death is approximately 67.8 years. General Population: in the same dataset, life expectancy averaged 74 years. The average age at which patients are typically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease is 79. People in these jobs don't live long enough on average to get diagnosed, at the same rate. The same effect will happen in any job that lowers your life expectancy.

The study accounts for that. Delay your aging by using your brain a fuck ton, all the time, learning brand new things nowhere near anything you already know.

[deleted]

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#146

Post by panabee »

The overall dataset was very large (8,972,221 deaths), but only 1,348 ambulance drivers were included, and just 10 had Alzheimer’s disease as the underlying cause of death.

Such a small number of outcomes matter because statistical precision depends on the number of relevant events. With only 10 Alzheimer’s deaths, even a small change in the count could substantially alter the estimated association.

Taxi drivers provided more robust data, with 171 Alzheimer’s deaths among 16,658 decedents, but death-certificate Alzheimer’s mortality may not reflect how often taxi drivers develop the disease. Differences in diagnosis or cause-of-death reporting across occupations could influence the observed association.

The large overall sample does not eliminate uncertainty in the much smaller occupational subgroups, particularly among ambulance drivers.

Nonetheless, this is an interesting study and merits further investigation.

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#147

Post by ChromaticPanic »

inglor_cz wrote: post #70
id wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it doesn't pay very well. Being affluent increases life expectancy.

1. They are hardly in the bottom quintile, where the income effect is large enough that it could actually shave 7 years off their life. I'd expect nightly work, irregular sleep patterns, too much fast food and maybe a higher frequency of smoking to do their part. 2. The original study didn't just study taxi drivers, but also ambulance drivers. I doubt that their life expectancy is that much lower.

They are if you consider the amount of hours they work

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#148

Post by eru »

hotstickyballs wrote: post #121
harrall wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The study accounts for that. Delay your aging by using your brain a fuck ton, all the time, learning brand new things nowhere near anything you already know.

Collecting a bunch of covariates is never a substitute for recognizing that you can't force people to be taxi drivers for life.

However, you might be able to find a natural experiment were taxi drivers were randomly prevented from continuing with their driving career?

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#149

Post by Dusseldorf »

bezmi wrote: post #129
smt88 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not smart to post something like this on the same message board you’re using to get a job

A joke?

might turn out that the next company they apply to is run by street urchins who don't take too kindly to the stereotype? or possibly humorless scolds who don't want their employees telling jokes in their free time?

Re: Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

#150

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

harrall wrote: post #83
cortic wrote: post #30

Taxi Drivers: The mean age at death is approximately 67.8 years. General Population: in the same dataset, life expectancy averaged 74 years. The average age at which patients are typically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease is 79. People in these jobs don't live long enough on average to get diagnosed, at the same rate. The same effect will happen in any job that lowers your life expectancy.

The study accounts for that. Delay your aging by using your brain a fuck ton, all the time, learning brand new things nowhere near anything you already know.

Could just be that whatever factor causes certain cabbies to live much longer than their cohort is also protective from Alzheimer’s. I guess they might have accounted for that too — I’ll have to look at the study.
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