Meaningless statistics on high blood pressure

YOUR report headlined ‘75% of taxi drivers have high blood pressure’ uses statistics in a meaningless way (Irish Examiner, May 12).

How high is ‘high’? Above the average?

And how can anyone say taxi drivers are more hypertensive than Irishmen of similar age without a comparison?

Journalists make numbers meaningless with the prefix ‘up to’, as in ‘up to 50 people were killed, which means any number between 0 and 50.

It tells us nothing to say ‘up to’ 70% of the one billion people worldwide with high blood pressure remain above the recommended goal.

However, it is a well known medical fact that lack of exercise, obesity, and stress are the major causes of hypertension, and studies establishing the excessive morbidity of people who drive for a living have been around for half a century. The moral of the story is that we should be trying to get more people out of their cars and walking or cycling, but this will not happen without Government action.

Michael Job

Rossnagrean

Glengarriff

Co Cork