A study tested an asthma medication in four patient subgroups: children with mild asthma (FEV1 improvement: 6%); children with severe asthma (FEV1 improvement: 22%); adults with mild asthma (4%); adults with severe asthma (24%). The researchers concluded that the drug's benefit is driven primarily by asthma severity rather than patient age. The data point most uniquely supporting this conclusion is ______
Which choice most logically completes the text using the data above?
- Acheck_circle
the close similarity of the two severe subgroups (22% in children, 24% in adults), and of the two mild subgroups (6% and 4%), regardless of age.
- B
the 6% improvement in children with mild asthma.
- C
the 22% improvement in children with severe asthma.
- D
the 4% improvement in adults with mild asthma.
Explanation
To argue severity matters more than age, the strongest evidence shows that holding severity constant produces similar results regardless of age, while changing severity produces big differences. Choice C captures this twice: severity dominates within each pair.