Why Comparisons of Medical Treatment Are Essential Reading Answers

Jul 3, 2025

Why Comparisons of Medical Treatment Are Essential Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. Why Comparisons of Medical Treatment Are Essential Reading Answers have a total of 14 IELTS questions in total. In Questions 27-32, choose the correct letter. In questions 33-36, you have to state whether the statement is yes, no or not given according to the passage. In Questions 37-40, choose ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

The IELTS Reading section is an essential part of the test that evaluates a candidate's comprehension and analysis of various passage types. You will work through a number of IELTS reading practice problems in this section that resemble actual test situations. These questions are designed to help you improve your ability to recognise essential concepts, extract particular facts, and make inferences. Practising these IELTS reading problems can help you get comfortable with the structure and increase your confidence for the exam, regardless of whether you are studying for the Academic or General Training module.

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Section 1 WHY COMPARISONS OF MEDICAL TREATMENT ARE ESSENTIAL

Medical treatment is relevant to virtually everyone at some time in their life, and of course, patients and healthcare professionals hope that treatments will be helpful. These optimistic expectations can have a very positive effect on everybody's satisfaction with healthcare, as the

British doctor Richard Asher noted in one of his essays for doctors:

'If you can believe fervently in your treatment, even though controlled tests show that it is quite useless, then your results look much better, your patients feel much better, and your income is much better too. I believe this accounts for the remarkable success of some of the less

gifted, but more credulous members of our profession, and also for the violent dislike of statistics and controlled tests which fashionable and successful doctors are accustomed to display' (Asher, 1972).

People often recover from illness without any specific treatment: nature and time are great healers. The progress and outcome of illness, if left untreated must obviously be taken into account when treatments are being tested: treatment may improve or it may worsen outcomes. Writers over the centuries have drawn attention to the need to be sceptical about claims that treatments can be more effective than nature. Put another way, 'If you leave a dose of 'flu to nature, you'll probably get over it in a week; but if you go to the doctor, you'll recover in a mere seven days.'

In the knowledge that much illness is self-limiting, doctors sometimes prescribe 'dummy' treatments in the hope that their patients will derive psychological benefit - the so-called placebo effect. Patients may be given a placebo and, because they believe that it will help to relieve their symptoms - even though the treatment. in fact, has no physical effects-may well feel better.

Doctors have recognised the importance of using placebos for centuries. For example, William Cullen referred to his use of a placebo as long ago as 1772 (Cullen, 1772), and references to placebos increased during the nineteenth century (e.g. Cummings, 1805; Forbes, 1846). Because Austin Flint believed that orthodox drug treatment was usurping the credit due to 'nature. He gave thirteen patients with rheumatism a 'placeboic remedy' consisting of a highly dilute extract of the bark of the quassia tree. The result was that 'the favourable progress of the cases was such as to secure for the remedy generally the entire confidence of the patients' (Flint, 1863). At the beginning of the twentieth century, William Rivers discussed psychologically mediated effects of treatments in detail (Rivers, 1908).

Just as the healing power of nature and the placebo effect have been recognised for centuries, so also has the need for comparisons to assess the effects of treatments over and above natural and psychologically-mediated effects. Sometimes treatment comparisons are made in people's minds: they have an impression that they or others are responding differently to a new treatment compared with previous responses to treatments. For example, Ambroise Paré, a French military surgeon, concluded that treatment of battle wounds with boiling oil (as was common practice) was likely to be harmful. He concluded this when the supply of oil ran out and his patients recovered more quickly than usual (Paré, 1575).

Most of the time, impressions like this need to be followed up by formal investigations, perhaps initially by analysis of healthcare records. Such impressions may then lead to carefully conducted comparisons. The danger arises when impressions alone are used as a guide to

treatment recommendations and decisions.

Treatment comparisons based on impressions, or relatively restricted analyses, only provide reliable information in the rare circumstances when treatment effects are dramatic (Glasziou et al., 2007). One such example is the use of adrenaline for life-threatening allergic reactions

(McLean-Tooke et al., 2003). Most medical treatments don't have such dramatic effects as this, however, and unless care is taken to avoid biased comparisons, dangerously mistaken conclusions about the effects of treatment may result.

Comparing treatments given today with those given in the past only rarely provides a secure basis for a fair test (Behring et al., 1893), because relevant factors other than the treatments themselves change over time. If possible, therefore, comparisons should involve giving different

treatments at more or less the same time.

A patient may be given different treatments one after the Other - a so-called crossover test (Martini, 1932). An early example was reported in 1786 by Dr Caleb Parry in Bath, England. Rhubarb, a vegetable imported from Turkey at considerable expense, was generally prescribed for certain patients. Parry wanted to find out whether there was any reason to pay for this rhubarb, rather than using rhubarb grown locally in England. So he ‘crossed-over' the type of rhubarb given to each individual patient at different times and then compared the symptoms each patient experienced while eating each type of rhubarb (Parry, 1786). (He didn't find any advantage in the expensive rhubarb!)

Treatments are usually tested by comparing groups of people who receive different treatments. A comparison of two treatments will be unfair if relatively well people have received one treatment and relatively ill people have received the Other, so the experiences of similar groups of people who receive different treatments over the same period of time must be compared. Al-Razi recognised this more than a thousand years ago when, wishing to reach a conclusion about how to treat patients with early signs of meningitis, he treated one group of patients

and intentionally withheld treatment from a comparison group (Al-Razi, ninth century). Comparisons with nature or with other treatments are needed for fair tests of treatments. If these comparisons are to be fair, they must address genuine uncertainties, avoid biases and the effects of chance, and be interpreted carefully.

Questions 27-32

Choose the correct letter.

27. According to Asher, what is likely to make a treatment effective?

A. the wealth of the patients

B. the doctor's knowledge of controlled tests

C. the patient's understanding of medicine

D. the doctor's confidence in the treatment

Answer: D

Supporting statement: 'If you can believe fervently in your treatment,

Keywords: believe, treatment

Keyword Location: Para 2, Line 1

Explanation: According to Asher, a treatment is likely to be successful if the doctor is confident in it.

28. What does Asher imply about 'fashionable and successful doctors'?

A. They choose to ignore facts that show their treatments to be useless.

B. They do not understand the importance of having statistics.

C. Their patients prefer to be treated by someone who shows them their results.

D. They would find it hard to explain controlled tests to patients.

Answer: A

Supporting statement: and also for the violent dislike of statistics and controlled tests which fashionable and successful doctors are accustomed to display'

Keywords: fashionable, doctors

Keyword Location: Para 2, Line 5

Explanation: According to Asher, fashionable and successful doctors usually ignore the fact that their treatment does not affect the patients and is useless.

29. What point does the writer make in the third paragraph?

A. Treatment is generally more beneficial than a natural

B. Understanding of how people recover from illness has greatly increased over time.

C. People may recover equally quickly from illness with and without treatment.

D. Treatments need to be thoroughly tested before they are used.

Answer: C

Supporting statement: If you leave a dose of 'flu to nature, you'll probably get over it in a week; but if you go to the doctor, you'll recover in a mere seven days.'

Keywords: week, seven

Keyword Location: Para 3, Lines 6-7

Explanation: In the third paragraph, the writer makes it clear that with or without treatment, a patient might recover in the same time.

30. Austin Flint found that patients

A. lost confidence in doctors who gave them placebos.

B. wrongly believed it was the quassia bark that had cured them.

C. generally insisted on receiving orthodox drug treatment.

D. failed to recover if they realised they had received placebos.

Answer: B

Supporting statement: He gave thirteen patients with rheumatism a 'placeboic remedy' consisting of a highly dilute extract of the bark of the quassia tree.

Keywords: rheumatism, quassia tree

Keyword Location: Para 5, Lines 5-6

Explanation: According to the text, Austin Flint found that patents gave the quassia tree bark credit for their recovery.

31. In the sixth paragraph, what does the writer imply about Paré?

A. His assessments of patients' recovery time were inaccurate.

B. He was unwilling to recognise the benefits of some traditional treatments.

C. He only questioned treatment when the oil it required became unavailable.

D. He faced opposition from other doctors when he objected to treatment with boiling oil.

Answer: C

Supporting statement: He concluded this when the supply of oil ran out and his patients recovered more quickly than usual (Paré, 1575)

Keywords: oil, recovered

Keyword Location: Para 6, Lines 6-7

Explanation: According to the text, the writer implies that Ambroise Paré only realised that the oil used in the treatment of the wounds was harmful for the soldiers only after he had run out of the oil.

32. In the seventh paragraph, the writer

A. stresses the need for opinions to be supported by research.

B. wams against underestimating the value of impressions.

C. suggests how to improve the design of healthcare records.

D. outlines the possible effects of poorly thought out treatment decisions.

Answer: A

Supporting statement: impressions like this need to be followed up by formal investigations,

Keywords: impressions, investigations

Keyword Location: Para 6, Line 9

Explanation: According to the writer, as mentioned in the seventh paragraph, it is important to properly investigate any opinions made in case of medical treatment.

Questions 33-36

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

YES - if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO - if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN - If it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

33. Optimism can benefit both patients and the medical profession.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: your patients feel much better, and your income is much better too.

Keywords: patients, better

Keyword Location: Para 2, Line 2

Explanation: According to the text, a doctor's optimism can benefit both themselves and the patients they treat.

34. Placebos are more effective on mental illness than physical illness.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: No information about the placebo effect being more effective on mental illness than physical illness.

35. The effectiveness of adrenaline in treating allergic reactions is unusual for a medical treatment.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: One such example is the use of adrenaline for life-threatening allergic reactions (McLean-Tooke et al., 2003).

Keywords: adrenaline, allergic

Keyword Location: Para 7, Line 3

Explanation: According to the text, the use of adrenaline for life-threatening allergic reactions being effective is unusual for medical treatment.

36. Al-Razi chose an unfair method of comparing treatments.

Answer: NO

Supporting statement: Comparisons with nature or with other treatments are needed for fair tests of treatments.

Keywords: Comparison, treatments

Keyword Location: Para , Line

Explanation: According to the text, Al-Razi Comparisons must be fair, take into account real issues, stay free of biases and the impact of chance, and be carefully evaluated so he didn't use an unfair method of comparing treatments.

Questions 37-40

Choose ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

CROSSOVER TEST

In the eighteenth century, an English doctor, Caleb Parry, carried out an experiment in the treatment of patients. He gave each patient first one then another type of 37…… to find out if they had different effects on the patients' 38....... He concluded that the usual because it used treatment, which was more 39…….vegetables grown in Turkey, offered no 40……

37……………..

Answer: RHUBARB

Supporting statement: So he ‘crossed-over' the type of rhubarb given to each individual patient at different times

Keywords: crossed-over, rhubarb

Keyword Location: Para 8, Lines 5-6

Explanation: Caleb Parry, a doctor from England, experimented with patient care during the eighteenth century. He gave each patient one kind of rhubarb first, followed by another.

38……………..

Answer: SYMPTOMS

Supporting statement: then compared the symptoms each patient experienced while eating each type of rhubarb

Keywords: symptoms, eating

Keyword Location: Para 8, Lines 6-7

Explanation: The purpose of Caleb's Parry, experiment was to find if different types of rhubarb showed different symptoms in patients' treatment.

39……………..

Answer: EXPENSIVE

Supporting statement: (He didn't find any advantage in the expensive rhubarb!)

Keywords: find, expensive

Keyword Location: Para 8, Lines 7-8

Explanation: According to the text, the results of the experiment were usual despite having used an expensive type of rhubarb