Researchers have found that one in five patients hospitalized for hear

I'd go with B.

Researchers have found that one in five patients hospitalized for heart attack experiences a major depression. According to the cardiologists who conducted the research, the depressed patients are 55 percent more likely than other heart attack patients to need hospital care for a heart problem again within a year and three times as likely to die from a future attack or other heart-related conditions.

If the statements above are true, which of the following must be true?

Suppose there are 50 people.
So, 10/50 experience major depression.
#1.Now, this lot is 55% more likely <than other HA patients> to need hospital care for a heart problem again
#2. Probability(Dying from future attack) = 3x <than other HA patients>

Cause epression / Effect : hospitalized for heart attack
Cause : Depression/ Effect : #1 and #2

(A) If a person dies of a heart attack, there is a high probability that he may have been suffering from depression as well.
We just know the cause. Cause of death is not known.

(B) If a patient needs to be re-hospitalised for a heart related problem within a year of his earlier heat attack, it is very likely that he may be suffering from depression.
Correct - inline with the above explanation.

(C) There are some similarities between symptoms of depression and symptoms of a heart attack in a patient.
No information given.

(D) Depressed people are more likely to die of a heart attack than are people who do not suffer from depression.
We cannot infer.

(E) Suffering from a heart attack can lead to depression in some people.
We do not know if this is true.

Let's say 100 people get hospitalized for a heart attack.
Then 20 patients experience depression.
These 20 patients differ from the rest (80) by 2 things:
a. They are 55% more likely to experience another attack within an year
b. They are 3 times as likely to die from a future attack or other cardiac ailment

Now, we have to find what must be true.

(A) If a person dies of a heart attack, there is a high probability that he may have been suffering from depression as well. Incorrect. Since a person not suffering from depression i.e the rest 80 people, can also die of a heart attack

(B) If a patient needs to be re-hospitalised for a heart related problem within a year of his earlier heat attack, it is very likely that he may be suffering from depression. Cites the condition (a). There is a 55% greater chance. Correct

(C) There are some similarities between symptoms of depression and symptoms of a heart attack in a patient. Incorrect. Nothing is said about that.

(D) Depressed people are more likely to die of a heart attack than are people who do not suffer from depression. Not true for every depressed person in general. We are only concerned with people who already suffered a heart attack and as a result developed depression.

(E) Suffering from a heart attack can lead to depression in some people. Sounds tempting. But, we are specifically told that one is 5 people who get hospitalized develop depression. What about Having a heart attack and not getting hospitalized?

Researchers have found that one in five patients hospitalized for heart attack experiences a major depression. According to the cardiologists who conducted the research, the depressed patients are 55 percent more likely than other heart attack patients to need hospital care for a heart problem again within a year and three times as likely to die from a future attack or other heart-related conditions.

If the statements above are true, which of the following must be true?

Soln: - It is always better to write the exact numbers in the questions related to percentages in CR

one in 5 heart attack patients suffers major depression
100patients -- heart attack
20 patients -- depression

depressed patients are 55 percent more likely than other heart attack patients to need hospital care for a heart problem
out of 20 depressed heart attack patients 11 patients can go bck to hospital
45pc of 80 = 36 normal heart attack patients go bck to hospital

three times as likely to die from a future attack
3:1
3(20):1(80)
60:80 = 6:8 chance for Depr: not dep


(A) If a person dies of a heart attack, there is a high probability that he may have been suffering from depression as well.
No as per above calculations

(B) If a patient needs to be re-hospitalised for a heart related problem within a year of his earlier heat attack, it is very likely that he may be suffering from depression.
No as per above calculations (11/46)

(C) There are some similarities between symptoms of depression and symptoms of a heart attack in a patient.
OOS

(D) Depressed people are more likely to die of a heart attack than are people who do not suffer from depression.
As per above calculation it is 6:8

(E) Suffering from a heart attack can lead to depression in some people.
this is not suggested anywhere. Some people do experience depression but it is direct result of Heart attack. I dont think so.


With above thorough investigations which of the following must be true?
1) the OA is incorrect,
2) writing the exact number doesn't help
3) I failed terribly

Official Explanation

Since this is an Inference question, let’s look at each option and eliminate.

(A) This may or may not be the case. The argument never states that there is a causal link between all depression and heart attack cases. It just states that those depression patients who have already had a heart attack have a high chance of suffering or dying from a heart ailment.

(B) The correct answer. This is definitely true because for such a patient, there is a 55% chance that he may be suffering from depression.

(C) The argument never makes any mention of the symptoms of a heart attack or of depression.

(D) Same as A; there is no direct link between depression and heart attacks for regular people.

(E) While this may look good, the argument never states what is the reason for this depression—heart attack or something else.­

mikemcgarry @veritasprepkarishma generis :- I felt the wordings for sentence (2) were not correct to say this is going to be true all the time

Could you please help here?

Posted from my mobile device

The passage said that a person with heart attack and with depression is more likely to be re-hospitalized in a year. The answer will be B.

@AndrewN- Could you please help me here?

Hello, dushyanta. Since I have a lot of work to get to, I am afraid I must keep my response brief. You seem to be stuck on (D). I will restrict my analysis to just (B) and (D), then, in an effort to assist you and the larger community.


I have said it before, and I will say it again: stick to exactly what the passage says when looking to size up an answer choice. On harder questions especially, you may slide into making assumptions more easily, and these can provide you a false sense of comfort. The research mentioned in the passage concerns a subset of people, patients hospitalized for heart attack experiences. We cannot make any comment on depressed people at large (i.e. those who have not experienced a heart attack). Moreover, the research states that depressed patients [hospitalized for heart attack experiences] are... three times as likely to die from a future attack or other heart-related conditions. This information provides a two-pronged target for debate. First, (D) can be interpreted as saying that people suffering from depression are more likely to die of a first-time heart attack than are others; second, the passage does not restrict future cardiac events to heart attacks, allowing for other heart-related conditions to kill off patients instead. For all of these reasons, we cannot get behind (D).


The timeline here fits verbatim with the information provided in the passage: within a year. So, too, does the re-hospitalization. (It is not a first-time cardiac episode.) Granted, heat attack needs to be heart attack instead, and very likely is vague and debatable, but the passage spells out that among patients hospitalized for heart attack... the depressed patients are 55 percent more likely than other heart attack patients to need hospital care for a heart problem again within a year. I would not cogitate here and come up with numbers to try to back up my answer; rather, I would yellow light this option as one that looked plausible, one that fell in line with the given information, and see if I could find easier targets in other answers. In this case, this is the exact process that eventually led me to (B) as the best answer of the bunch.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me about this tough question.

- Andrew

Thank you.. and Sorry for still bugging you..

This is the original stimulus


and this was the option



My understanding from this option is --> 'if there is someone who is hospitalised again.. it is very likely that he may be suffering from depression' is not equal to 'Depressed people are 55percent more likely to hospitalised'.. simply because it is talking about re-hospitalization from no of ppl hospitalised a year before. if the no of depressed people hospitalised are already 20 pc of the total, then even if there is a 55pc more chance of them getting re-hospitalized.. a patient who got rehospitalised would still be more likely not a depressed one.

Yes, I know what you mean, and I had considered independent probabilities prior to responding the first time, but at the same time, you should not be looking for an absolute truth in a GMAT™ question. You should be looking instead to identify and follow the linear logic of the passage, to choose the most reasonable option of the five presented that keeps with that logic. Notice, too, that this is a third-party question. Sometimes these apply a looser logic than you might expect to encounter in an official question. It is not a poor question, but just learn what you can from it and move on to other—official—examples.

- Andrew

Hey AndrewN

Initially I though B is the answer.

My query is:


I understood the above statement to be something that a patient goes through after heart attack and accordingly went with E. Yikes! (I'm suppose to give exams within few days )

the present tense "experiences" makes it seem that it is something happening.

Had the statement been worded as


I might have rejected E.

Whats your take ?

Appreciate your inputs always!

Hello, Hero1kF. I agree that the second version would add clarity to the timeline of the two negative events. I would not worry too much about this particular question, though. Just take what you can from it, read over the analyses given above, and spend time reviewing for the exam. Practicing more and more questions at this point will not likely help you or lead to a higher score. Review, on the other hand, can pay dividends.

Thank you for thinking to ask me.

- Andrew

mikemcgarry
KarishmaB
bb

Need your help here!

I feel B cannot be the answer for the following reason -
Let us assume there are a total of 100 heart attack patients out of which 20 suffer from depression and 80 constitutes others who do not suffer from depression after a heart attack.

Now, out of the remaining 80, let us assume 30% (equaling 24 persons) are likely to need hospital care for a heart problem again within a year. Going by the info given in the question, out of the 20 who suffered from depression, 85% (55% more likely than others equaling 17 persons) will be needing hospital care for a heart problem again within a year.

In this case, out of the 41 rehospitalised people, it is very likely that they are not suffering from depression rather than suffering from depression (As 24 > 17).

So B is ruled out.

E looks plausible.

Kindly comment

Consider (B) again:

(B) If a patient needs to be re-hospitalised for a heart related problem within a year of his earlier heat attack, it is very likely that he may be suffering from depression.

It is not making a concrete statement. Since people with depression are much more likely to come back to the hospital soon enough, it is quite likely that one who comes back has depression.
If you take a smaller percentage say 5% people who do not have depression come back within a year (and hence 60% of those with depression come back), now it becomes more likely that someone who comes back within a year has depression.
We are just talking about "likely" scenarios with a "may" in there. All in all, option (B) would be acceptable then.

(E) Suffering from a heart attack can lead to depression in some people.

We are making the correlation vs causation mistake here. Heart attacks and depression exist together doesn't mean that heart attacks cause depression.

You explained it very well!


Thank You!!

­It says heat attack instead of heart attack in option B, that made me choose A. Was it meant to be heat attack im confused, cuz if it was then it's not evident from re-hospitalised for a heart related problem, that the patient suffered a heart attack anytime within the range of 1-3 years.