Suppose a New Medical Study at a Research University Shows

question 25

Multiple Choice

Suppose a new medical study at a research university shows that a woman's chance of developing breast cancer triples if she is overweight.You know that the American Cancer Society says that the chance of a woman developing breast cancer in her lifetime is 1 in 9.Does being overweight now increase a woman's chance to 1 in 3 of developing breast cancer?

• A)Yes; 1/9 × 3 = 1/3.
• B)No; the baseline risk for women like the ones in this study may have been different from the American Cancer Society's lifetime risk.
• C)No; unless a causal relationship is established, you should just ignore all risk statistics.
• D)None of the above.