RELATIVE RISK, ODDS RATIO, ATTRIBUTABLE （相对风险,优势比,由于）.pdfVIP

HOME MedicalB RELATIVE RISK, ODDS RATIO, ATTRIBUTABLE RISK AND NUMBER NEEDED TO TREAT An improved version of this article is now available in Third Edition (2012) of the book Medical Biostatistics (CRC Press, New York) by Abhaya Indrayan Adapted from Basic Methods of Medical Research, Third Edition by A. Indrayan () Full details in Medical Biostatistics, Second Edition, 2008 by A. Indrayan Book details at http://MedicalB 1 EPIDEMIOLOGICAL INDICES The research may or may not be epidemiological but there is a high likelihood that it would use the epidemiological indices discussed in this note. Rate, risk, hazard, incidence, and prevalence are everyday indices of disease occurrence that are used in a large number of research endeavours. Although these indices apparently look simple but many researchers are not fully comfortable in their usage. The following description should be helpful in that case. RATE, RISK, HAZARD, AND ODDS Depending upon the focus, different indices are used to assess disease occurrence in a group of subjects. These can be explained as follows. RATE AND RATIO Akin to speed, rate is a measure of rapidity of occurrence of an event in a population. Thus time is an essential element of this concept. It has to be per unit of time – per day, per months, per year, etc. Rate is the frequency or the number of events that occur in a defined period of time divided by the population at risk for that event during that period. If the population varies from time to time within that period, such as at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year, it is conventional to use the average population, say at the middle of the year as an approximation. Here in lies the catch. If a cit