3. You wish to know whether there is some truth to generally held belief that ex

Question

3. You wish to know whether there is some truth to generally held belief that exposure to radon gas might be associated with increased lung cancer in Chester County, PA. You went to Chester County Hospital and looked at the records of patients who were admitted for various lung cancers during the period of twenty years (1970 to 1990). Finding: You studied 911 charts 544 had been exposed to radon 410 lung cancers (177 were not exposed to radon) Calculate the prevalence of cancer in those exposed to radon and in those who did not have exposure to radon.

Explanation / Answer

Radon gas exposure has been a suggestive of lung cancer in many patients. According to the information, some quantitative information can be gathered from the patients' data in the hospital.

Prevalance of a disease can be represented as the total number of individuals suffered from the diesease in a geographical area during a span of time. Thus, the calculations can be made as below:

1. The prevalence of cancer in those exposed to radon and in those who did not have exposure to radon:

Number of individuals exposed to radon: 544

Number of individuals not exposed to radon: 177

Thus,

a) Prevalance of radon exposed individuals : 544/911 or 0.597 or 59.7%.

b) Prevalance of non-radon exposed patients: 177/911 or 0.194 or 19.4%.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse 3
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.