Healthcare Debate

New Website Offers Facts

With the United States in the throes of a healthcare debate, Carnegie Mellon researchers have put together a new website that its creators hope will bring focus to some of the discussion.

Paul Fischbeck — a professor in social and decision sciences and engineering and public policy — developed DeathRiskRankings.com, which allows anyone to assess their own risk of dying based on a variety of factors. They can then compare their risks with counterparts in the U.S. and Europe.

"It's much easier to make a persuasive argument when you have the facts to back it up, and this site provides all sides with the facts,'' said Fischbeck.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many old ladies and so few old men? In the race to die first, men are the clear winners. For every age group, men have a much higher annual death risk than women.

Men are much more prone to accidents, homicides and suicides, and the risk of dying from heart disease is always higher for men than women, peaking in the 50s when men are 2.5 times at greater risk of dying.

There are alarming differences among gender, racial and regional lines.

Suppose you wanted to know who is more likely to die next year from breast cancer, a 54-year-old Pennsylvania woman or her counterpart in the United Kingdom?

"This is the only place to look,'' said Fischbeck. "It turns out that the British woman has a 33 percent higher risk of breast cancer death. But for lung/throat cancer, the results are almost reversed, and the Pennsylvania woman has a 29 percent higher risk.''

DeathRiskRankings.com allows users to query publicly-available data from the U.S. and Europe, and compare mortality risks by gender, age and cause of death, U.S. states and European countries.

The website not only gives the risk of dying within the next year, but it also ranks the possible causes and allows for quick side-by-side comparison between groups.

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