Foundational Statistical Principles in Medical Research: A Tutorial on Odds Ratios, Relative Risk, Absolute Risk, and Number Needed to Treat

Thomas F. Monaghan, Syed N. Rahman, Christina W. Agudelo, Alan J. Wein, Jason M. Lazar, Karel Everaert and Roger R. Dmochowski
Additional contact information
Thomas F. Monaghan: Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA
Syed N. Rahman: Department of Urology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Christina W. Agudelo: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA
Alan J. Wein: Division of Urology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Jason M. Lazar: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA
Karel Everaert: Department of Human Structure and Repair, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Roger R. Dmochowski: Department of Urological Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Evidence-based medicine is predicated on the integration of best available research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values to inform care. In medical research, several distinct measures are commonly used to describe the associations between variables, and a sound understanding of these pervasive measures is foundational in the clinician’s ability to interpret, synthesize, and apply available evidence from the medical literature. Accordingly, this article aims to provide an educational tutorial/topic primer on some of the most ubiquitous measures of association and risk quantification in medical research, including odds ratios, relative risk, absolute risk, and number needed to treat, using several real-world examples from the medical literature.

Keywords: basics; biostatistics; fundamentals; introduction; methodology; odds; ratio; relative; risk; statistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5669/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5669/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5669-:d:562166

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().