The first graph is supposed to show ” BMI at age 50 for white, high-school educated American men born in various years”, but goes up 1986. But People born in 1986 are only 38 right now, so we cannot know their BMI at 50 years old. Something is wrong.
It’s a regression. Just like they extrapolate backwards to (1882+50=1932) using data from 1959, they extrapolate forwards at the end. (This is discussed in the “timelines” section.) This is definitely a valid reason to treat it with suspicion, but nothing’s “wrong” exactly.
The first graph is supposed to show ” BMI at age 50 for white, high-school educated American men born in various years”, but goes up 1986. But People born in 1986 are only 38 right now, so we cannot know their BMI at 50 years old. Something is wrong.
It’s a regression. Just like they extrapolate backwards to (1882+50=1932) using data from 1959, they extrapolate forwards at the end. (This is discussed in the “timelines” section.) This is definitely a valid reason to treat it with suspicion, but nothing’s “wrong” exactly.