I was flipping through my latest copy of Triathlete Magazine and came across this ad from Athletes for a Cure. I was shocked by their proclaimed statistic. THIS YEAR, one in six American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Really? So, statistically, every six years every single man in American will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and on average a man will be diagnosed 10 times in his lifetime. Based on their claim, roughly 17 million men will be diagnosed this year. Luckily, none of this is true and it's simply some really bad copy. The one in six statistic is actually over a man's lifetime, not each year. Each year, 218,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, 27,000 will die from it. With early detection and treatment, there is a 90% survival rate. Those are still scary numbers, but it's not the black plague that the ad makes it out to be. If you're interested in donating towards fighting prostate cancer, go to the prostate cancer foundation.
UPDATE: I notified Athletes for a Cure about the error and they emailed me back saying that they've corrected their website and future print ads.
Whew! Thanks for straightening out those misleading statistics. Of course for the unfortunate fellow that gets prostate cancer, his statistics are 100%.
As we said back in the 60's - "question authority"
For an insightful look at the world of misleading statistics - read Freakonomics - I recommend it.
Hank