Measures of Health and Disease Flashcards
Risk ratio
Cumulative incidence in exposed/ cumulative incidence in unexposed
Rate ratio
Incidence ratio in the exposed/incidence rate in the unexposed group
Odds ratio
Odds of disease in exposed/ odds of disease in unexposed
Use of relative risk
Measure of aetiological strength (potency of a risk factor)
Critical measures to derive causal inferences
Can be used to compare the effects of two treatments and decide which is best
Absolute measures of exposure effect
Risk difference: risk exposed - risk unexposed
Rate difference: incidence rate of exposed - incidence rate of unexposed
Rate difference %: rate difference/incidence rate of exposed
Features of attributable risk
Indicates the incidence/proportion of disease in an exposed group attributable to that specific exposure.
Indicates the proportion of disease that could be prevented by removing that specific exposure
Confounder
A factor associated with the exposure under study that independently affects the disease risk
E.g. Age, sex, associated behaviours
standardised mortality ratio
Mortality observed in a population under study/expected number of deaths per year
