Akela wrote:
Sociologist: A recent study of 5,000 individuals found, on the basis of a physical exam, that more than 25 percent of people older than 65 were malnourished, though only 12 percent of the people in this age group fell below government poverty standards. In contrast, a greater percentage of the people 65 or younger fell below poverty standards than were found in the study to be malnourished.
Each of the following, if true, helps to explain the findings of the study cited by the sociologist EXCEPT:
(A) Doctors are less likely to correctly diagnose and treat malnutrition in their patients who are over 65 than in their younger patients.
(B) People over 65 are more likely to take medications that increase their need for certain nutrients than are people 65 or younger.
(C) People over 65 are more likely to suffer from loss of appetite due to medication than are people 65 or younger.
(D) People 65 or younger are no more likely to fall below government poverty standards than are people over 65.
(E) People 65 or younger are less likely to have medical conditions that interfere with
Awesome question. My two cents:
There are two groups of people surveyed in the study of 5k people.
Group 1: more than 65 older
Suffer from malnutrition >= 25%
Below poverty standards = 12%.
Group 2: 65 years or younger
% of people below poverty line were greater than % of people who were caught with malnutrition.
The question asks to pick one thing that does not explain this contrast. Well, here the process of elimination kicks in.
Pre-thought process:
What can be the possibile contrast?
Well from above facts we know that there is a play of a correlation of malnutrition and poverty line for sure to arrive at the explainations of the contrast.
If poverty line was really the cause of the malnutrition then we will be in a comfortable position.
So let's put our cause and effect:
X = poverty standards
Y = malnutrition.
X causes Y can be the reason that might explain the contrast explained above.
So with this in mind let's proceed to the answer.
Quote:
(A) Doctors are less likely to correctly diagnose and treat malnutrition in their patients who are over 65
This option brings in the cause of doctors diagnosis in case of group 1 and and thus this strengthens our belief that above 65 the problem might be because of this. On lower end even doctors are able to diagnose properly the problem is not solved and hence can be caused by below poverty line. Hence this is incorrect.
Quote:
(B) People over 65 are more likely to take medications that increase their need for certain nutrients than are people 65 or younger.
Again as in A we have a cause to doubt the probable happening of the malnutrition here, hence incorrect.
Similar for C and E. In E alternate cause strengthens our belief that the cause of the problem might be the malnutrition.
But let's see D.
Quote:
People 65 or younger are no more likely to fall below government poverty standards than are people over 65.
Does this explain any cause and effect? NO. It talks about the cause only in this case. But we have no clue if this will help us evaluate whether the poverty standards are the real cause or not and hence this shall be our answer.
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