1. Suppose a person gets tested and receives a positive test result. We want to determine: with what probability can we conclude the person actually has the condition, given that they received a positive test result? The answer is not 95%. To investigate this question, it will be helpful to create a contingency table. Label the rows as + and - (the test result outcome) and label the columns "has it" and "does not have it" (the actual condition of the person in relation to the ailment). You can assume we have a random sample of, say, 1,000,000 individuals. From this you know what percentage are expected to have it. Then, you can use the accuracy of the test to figure out how many positive and negative results we expect. Once your table is complete, you can answer the above question. Why do you think the answer is so much lower than the 95%?
Continuous Probability Distributions
Probability distributions are of two types, which are continuous probability distributions and discrete probability distributions. A continuous probability distribution contains an infinite number of values. For example, if time is infinite: you could count from 0 to a trillion seconds, billion seconds, so on indefinitely. A discrete probability distribution consists of only a countable set of possible values.
Normal Distribution
Suppose we had to design a bathroom weighing scale, how would we decide what should be the range of the weighing machine? Would we take the highest recorded human weight in history and use that as the upper limit for our weighing scale? This may not be a great idea as the sensitivity of the scale would get reduced if the range is too large. At the same time, if we keep the upper limit too low, it may not be usable for a large percentage of the population!
Questions:
1. Suppose a person gets tested and receives a positive test result. We want to determine: with what probability can we conclude the person actually has the condition, given that they received a positive test result? The answer is not 95%. To investigate this question, it will be helpful to create a
2. Ideally, everyone who gets a positive result is retested. We know from our table in Problem 1 how many people tested positive. Some of those people do have the condition and some don't. Nonetheless, they are frightened and are told by their doctor they will need to be retested. Recalculate the table with these new figures (there are no longer 1,000,000 people being tested). With what probability can we conclude the person actually has the condition, given that they received a positive test result again? Would you recommend for a third retest?
DB Team Lead Required Question (these questions are optional if you are not the DB Lead this week, though I encourage you to engage in the challenge!):
3. What we have observed as these hauntingly low probabilities is somewhat of an effect of the fact that the condition is somewhat "rare" - it only affects 0.9% of the population. Suppose we considered an ailment that affects 5% of the U.S. population. The test is again 95% accurate. Repeat questions 1 and 2 for this new scenario. What is your conclusion about what happens when we hold the accuracy of the test constant and we consider higher prevalence rates? (NOTE: prevalence is just a fancy way of describing what percentage of people get the condition.)
4. Congratulations! You are approaching a level of medical testing expertise most people do not have! One final thought question: since accuracy is such a confusing idea, why do you think we report accuracy instead of as the likelihood that a person actually has it, given that they get a positive test result? Use your observations in the problems above to help you think through this.
“Since you have asked multiple questions, we will solve the first question for you. If you
want any specific question to be solved then please specify the question number or post
only that question.”
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 4 steps with 3 images