This page is maintained by
Thomas Bending,
and was last modified on 23 September 2007.
Comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome.
Copyright © Thomas Bending 2008.
Q: If drug B has a higher success rate (%age of cures) than drug A
when given to women, and also when given to men, does it have a higher
success rate when given to people in general?
[2 Apr 1997]
A: Not necessarily, eg
| Women | Men | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success | Failure | Success | Failure | |
| A | 85 | 31 | 4 | 5 |
| B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Then for women B (75%) is better than A (73%) and for men B (50%) is again better than A (44%), but for people in general A (71%) is better than B (67%).
Q: ??? What's the smallest possible "paradoxical" situation (ie
smallest total number of people)?
[2 Apr 1997]
A: If we insist that every entry is non-0 then
| Women | Men | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success | Failure | Success | Failure | |
| A | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
is pretty good (20 people). If we don't then
| Women | Men | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success | Failure | Success | Failure | |
| A | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
is even better (9 people). Is either minimal?
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This page is maintained by
Thomas Bending,
and was last modified on 23 September 2007.
Comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome.
Copyright © Thomas Bending 2008.