Epidemiology jokes! This one’s for all you epidemiologists, feverishly Googling the evening before your big seminar, searching for a little icebreaker—a little nugget of self-deprecating humor to win the crowd over. Show them you’re not some pointy-headed stiff. I get a fair amount of Google hits on this site for ‘epidemiology jokes’ for some reason, so I thought I’d cater to this important dem...

Objective: To estimate the loss of life expectancy attributable to tobacco taxation (via financial hardship and flow-on health effect) in New Zealand. Design: Data were used on the gradients in life expectancy and smoking by neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation and survey data on tobacco expenditure. Three estimates were modelled of the percentage of the crude association of neighbourhood de...

Physical activity reduces many major mortality risk factors including arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer. All-cause mortality is decreased by about 30% to 35% in physically active as compared to inactive subjects. The purpose of this paper was to synthesize the literature on life expectancy in relation to physical activity. ...

BACKGROUND Switzerland had the highest life expectancy at 82.8 years among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2011. Geographical variation of life expectancy and its relation to the socioeconomic position of neighbourhoods are, however, not well understood. METHODS We analysed the Swiss National Cohort, which linked the 2000 census with mortality re...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the loss of life expectancy attributable to tobacco taxation (via financial hardship and flow-on health effect) in New Zealand. DESIGN Data were used on the gradients in life expectancy and smoking by neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation and survey data on tobacco expenditure. Three estimates were modelled of the percentage of the crude association of neighbourhood de...

BACKGROUND Scotland has been dubbed 'the sick man of Europe' on account of its higher mortality rates compared with other western European countries. It is not clear the length of time for which Scotland has had higher mortality rates. The root causes of the higher mortality in Scotland remain elusive. METHODS Life expectancy data from the Human Mortality Database were tabulated and graphed f...

OBJECTIVES To determine the contribution of progress in averting premature deaths to the increase in life expectancy and the decline in lifespan variation. DESIGN International comparison of national life table data from the Human Mortality Database. SETTING 40 developed countries and regions, 1840-2009. POPULATION Men and women of all ages. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE We use two summary measu...

During the twentieth century, life expectancy rose significantly across the globe due to improvements in public health and overall living conditions.[1] By 1950, life expectancy in most of today's developed countries had increased by an average of 20 years. In 1900, Japan's life expectancy was 43 years; today that country boasts the highest in the world at 83. The United States entered the last...