Reporting the findings: Absolute vs relative risk

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• Format Websites
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Self-directed learning
• EBM Stage 3 - Appraising evidence
• Duration 5-15 mins
• Difficulty Intermediate

Key Concepts addressed

• 2-3b Relative measures of effects can be misleading

Details

Why you should always use absolute risk numbers:

“New drug cuts heart attack risk in half.”

Sounds like a great drug, huh?

Yet it sounds significantly less great when you realize we’re actually talking about a 2% risk dropping to a 1% risk. The risk halved, but in a far less impressive fashion.

That’s why absolute numbers matter: They provide readers with enough information to determine the true size of the benefit. In more detail: