In: Statistics and Probability
4) Consider two medical tests, A and B for a virus. Test A is
90% effective at recognizing the virus when it is present, but has
a 5% false positive rate. Test B is 80% effective at recognizing
the virus when it is present, but only has a 1% false positive
rate. The two tests are independent (i.e., they use different means
for identifying the virus). The virus is carried by 2% of all
people. If you could use only one of the two tests
to identify the virus, which would you choose? Justify your answer
mathematically. How much more certain can you be if you can
use both tests? << how do you answer this bold part?
P(Test A = + | Virus = Present) = 0.90
P(Test A = + | Virus = Absent) = 0.05
P(Test B = + | Virus = Present) = 0.80
P(Test B = + | Virus = Absent) = 0.1
P(Virus = present) = 0.02
P(Virus =Absent) = 0.98
Baye’s Theorem:
P(H|E) = P(E|H) * P(H) / P(E|H) * P(H) + P(E| not H) * p(not H)
P(Virus = present | Test A = +) = P(Test A = +| Virus = present) * P(Virus = present) / P(Test A = +| Virus = present) * P(Virus = present) + P(Test A = + | Virus = Absent) * P(Virus = Absent)
P(Virus = present | Test B = +) = P(Test B = +| Virus = present) * P(Virus = present) / P(Test B = +| Virus = present) * P(Virus = present) + P(Test B= + | Virus = Absent) * P(Virus = Absent)
Values placed in formula:
Test A = (0.90)(0.02)/(0.90)(0.02)+(0.05)(0.98) = 0.2686
Test B = (0.80) (0.02)/ (0.80) (0.02) + (0.01) (0.98) =
0.6201
the value obtained for B is higher, so it can be said the result of
B is more reliable. Therefore, I would use test B.
the probability that virus is present in the people is
The probability that the virus is not present in the people is
we need to find which test has the probability higher to give right decisions
The probability that the test A gives the right decision = Probability that the person has virus and test positive + the probability that the person has no virus and test negative
=
Similarly, The probability that the test B gives the right decision = Probability that the person has a virus and test positive + the probability that the person has no virus and test negative
=
Surely test B has the probability higher of giving the right decision
The result you found and the explainantion above can both be combined to support that test B is more effective than test A