In a certain village, 20% of the population has some disease. A test is administered which has the property that if a person is sick, the test will be positive 90% of the time and if the person is not sick, then the test will still be positive 30% of the time. All people tested positive are prescribed a drug which always cures the disease but produces a rash 25% of the time. Given that a random person has the rash, what is the probability that this person had the disease to start with?

Ty Moore

Ty Moore

Answered question

2022-11-16

In a certain village, 20% of the population has some disease. A test is administered which has the property that if a person is sick, the test will be positive 90% of the time and if the person is not sick, then the test will still be positive 30% of the time. All people tested positive are prescribed a drug which always cures the disease but produces a rash 25% of the time. Given that a random person has the rash, what is the probability that this person had the disease to start with?
I am looking for P(S|R) given that a person tested positive where S denotes a sick person R denotes a person with a rash, given that they tested positive. If + denotes a person who tested positive and I use Baye's formula and the data to calculate P ( S | + ) would P ( S | R ) = P ( R | + ) P ( S | + ) P ( R | + ) = P ( S | + )? Or would the answer be P ( S | R ) = P ( R ) P ( S | + )? Or are both of these answers wrong? Also, I cannot tell if in the problem statement P ( R ) = .25 or P ( R | + ) = .25

Answer & Explanation

Gilbert Petty

Gilbert Petty

Beginner2022-11-17Added 23 answers

Step 1
Assuming that the rash occurs only due to the medicine and not for other reasons,
First, P(S)=0.2,P(Sc)=0.8
What is the probability that a sick person tests positive and finally develops rashes after taking medicine? P(R|S)=0.9×0.25
Step 2
Similarly, find P(R|Sc)
Now
P ( S | R ) = P ( R | S ) P ( S ) P ( R )
= P ( R | S ) P ( S ) P ( R | S ) P ( S ) + P ( R | S c ) P ( S c )
Emmanuel Giles

Emmanuel Giles

Beginner2022-11-18Added 2 answers

Step 1
We want
P ( S | R ) = P ( R | S ) P ( S ) ) P ( R )
We are given P(S), P ( + | S ) and P ( + | ¬ S ) and, indirectly, P ( R | + ). I say indirectly because we are actually given the probability that a person gets a rash given that he is administered the drug but this only happens when a person tests positive.
We must use the given probabilities and P(+) to calculate the unknowns P(R|S) and P(R).
P ( + ) = P ( + | S ) P ( S ) + P ( + | ¬ S ) P ( ¬ S ) = 0.9 0.2 + 0.3 0.8 = 0.42 P ( R ) = P ( R | + ) P ( + ) + P ( R | ¬ + ) P ( ¬ + ) = 0.25 0.42 + 0 0.58 = 0.105 P ( R | S ) = P ( R | + ) P ( + | S ) = 0.25 0.9 = 0.225
Plugging in the values above gives P ( S | R ) = 0.225 0.2 0.105 = 3 7

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