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. 2004 Aug;8(4):287-91.
doi: 10.1186/cc2908. Epub 2004 Jun 30.

Statistics review 11: assessing risk

Viv Bewick  1 , Liz Cheek, Jonathan Ball
Affiliations

Statistics review 11: assessing risk

Viv Bewick et al. Crit Care. 2004 Aug.

Abstract

Relative risk and odds ratio have been introduced in earlier reviews (see Statistics reviews 3, 6 and 8). This review describes the calculation and interpretation of their confidence intervals. The different circumstances in which the use of either the relative risk or odds ratio is appropriate and their relative merits are discussed. A method of measuring the impact of exposure to a risk factor is introduced. Measures of the success of a treatment using data from clinical trials are also considered.

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