nbme 13 q

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aspiringmd1015

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An epidemiologist is investigating an outbreak of diarrhea among a total of 1000 consumers of vegetables. Of those consumers, 800 people at tomatoes and 200 people ate lettuce. A total of 400 people became ill; 80 of these people ate tomatoes, and 40 people ate lettuce. Which of the following indicates the probability of diarrhea having developed in people who consumed lettuce?
A. 0.08
B. 0.1
C. 0.2
D. 0.4
E. 0.5

i luckily picked c, i think the first time on an nbme a blank answer was picked. i suck at math. i was confused about the 280 people who are also sick who couldve eaten lettuce and tomatoes.

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So it is saying basically saying in people who consumed lettuce, how many got diarrhea. I.e what risk of diarrhea was seen among those eating lettuce? So 200 ate lettuce that is your denominator. Of those 40 got sick so 40/200=1/5=.2 I think the other 280 was a distractor. Basically they were just asking you to calculate the risk of diarrhea in those eating lettuce. The rest is fluff. For these I think it is good to identify the population in question (those who ate lettuce in this case) and then your outcome in question (diarrhea in this case). Thinking in these terms allows you to filter out what you need.


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