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8 Kiselv 5767 - November 29, 2006 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
A Phony Media Scoop: Do More Chareidim Suffer from Diabetes?

by N. Katzin

A recent "scoop" about chareidim consisted of sensationalist headlines that the diabetes rate among the chareidi population is thirty per cent more than that of the general population. Not only is the story wrong, but the truth is precisely the opposite!

"Chareidim have the Highest Rate of Diabetes," the headline of a popular Israeli newspaper read. In an article concerning World Diabetes Day (November 14) it was reported that, "`the rate of diabetes in the chareidi sector is thirty per cent higher than that of the general population, but chareidim choose not to treat it,' Israeli specialists say."

The regular readers of the non-religious media are apparently prepared to believe any fabricated scandal about chareidim (who are, as you no doubt remember, the most hated group in the State of Israel according to opinion surveys), and never imagined that this was a journalistic canard, at the very least. This time the latest scoop about chareidim is not only fictitious with absolutely no basis in fact, but it is also a complete distortion of the truth!

It is unclear where the journalist acquired the astonishing statistics about which he wrote in a sensationalist article (journalists often do not divulge their source of information). What is undisputable is that this piece of information only existed in someone's fertile imagination. First, no study has ever been done which reports these findings. Second, a recent research paper totally contradicts it.

A similar tale was forwarded a while ago to the Hebrew Yated Ne'eman's medical column. However the tale sounded vague and the staff's professional feeling was that the information was unreliable. After checking things out we discovered that the exact opposite was the case; chareidim suffer less from diabetes!

A statistical study which was performed by Maccabi Healthcare Services was published last Tammuz (July 2006) to mark the inauguration of the Maccabi Hashalom Center in Tel Aviv. A comparative study was made of the health of people living in the various cities of the Gush Dan area. The cities included in the study were Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Holon, Givatayim and Bnei Brak. Bnei Brak, is a large city and the only chareidi one researched. We can, therefore, presume that the figures indicate the rate of illness among the chareidi sector as opposed to the general populace.

The statistics show that the rates of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure in Bnei Brak are lower than for the other cities. Incidentally, the average number of visits to family physicians or pediatricians is significantly lower in Bnei Brak as compared to the other cities. These are the facts, but when a journalist has a negative story about chareidim, who bothers to verify stories?

 

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