variation

[dreamv]

There is a great deal of geographical variation in the frequency of many surgical procedures - up to tenfold variation per hundred thousand between different areas in the numbers of hysterectomies, prostatectomies, and tonsilectomies.

To support a conclusion that much of the variation is due to unnecessay surgical procedures, it would be more important to establish which of the following?

A. A local board of review at each hospital examines the records of every operation to determine whether the surgical procedure was necessary.

B. The variation is unrelated to factors(other than the surgical procedures themselves) that influence the incidence of diseases for which surgery might be considered.

C. There are several categories of surgical procedure (other than hysterectomies, prostatectomies, and tonsilectomies) that are often performed unnecessarily.

D. For certain surgical procedures, it is difficult to determine after the operation whether the procedures were necessary or whether alternative treatment would have succeeded.

E. With respect to how often they are performed unnecessarily, hysterectomies, prostatectomies, and tonsilectomies are representative of surgical procedures in general.

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A - It doesn't prove that surgery is unncessary.
B - if this is true then 'most' surgeries would be unnecessary.
C - very generic, we cannot derive anything from this
D - close one. We can say that since it is difficult to decide what to be done 'certain' procedures would be unnecessary ( not 'most' ).
E - irrelevant

IMO B

[karthikgmat]

B looks good. But felt uninterested working on this question.

[dreamv]

Does B mean that variation is not related to the disease with potential of surgery, but related to the surgical procedures? English wording makes me confused...

[pemdas]

strange but I arrive at choice e
choices analyzed as given below
a) unclear authority, local board vs. geographical variation.
b) is repetitive in language
c) applies circular reasoning
d) contradicts itself by stating two possibilities

[ColumbiaVC]

B

[mankey]

Chose B. But a little confused with the language.

Could someone please help with the language of the question.

Regards.

[chris@magoosh]

It seems that a lot of people are having trouble on the wording in (B). So I'll do my best to simplify it:


There are no other factors that could account for a great number of diseases that require surgical procedures.


The conclusion: the regional variation in the number of surgical procedures suggests that too many unnecessary surgical procedures are being done.

To support this conclusion we need to discount any other explanations - besides unnecessary procedures - for the variation. Answer (B) clearly does so by stating that the variation does not have any other causes. For instance, perhaps in the affluent part of town people have more money to spend on procedures (or better health coverage). Perhaps a certain part of town is where the retirees live. Older people need more surgery because they are more likely to get diseases. Again, (B) discounts all these possible factors. Therefore it strengthens the conclusion.

(E) - a tempting answer for some - does not exclude other possible factors. It simply says that the variation for hysterectomies, etc. is the same for other surgical procedures (the argument already mentions 'many surgical procedures). Is this variation because of unnecessary procedures or some other cause? (E) does not provide this info.

Hope that helps!