In: Statistics and Probability
A health study tracked a group of persons for five years. At the beginning of the study, 25% were classified as heavy smokers, 35% as light smokers, and 40% as nonsmokers. Results of the study showed that light smokers were twice as likely as nonsmokers to die during the five-year study, but only half as likely as heavy smokers. A randomly selected participant from the study died over the five-year period. Compute the probability that the participant was a nonsmoker.
Answer:
Given that:
A health study tracked a group of persons for five years. At the beginning of the study, 25% were classified as heavy smokers, 35% as light smokers, and 40% as nonsmokers.
Define the following events are
H=being a heavy smoker
L= being a light smoker
N=being a non smoker
D = Death during the five year study
Also we have
Since L,N and H are exhaustive events we must have
We need