Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Dec 30;35(30):5730-5735.
doi: 10.1002/sim.7059. Epub 2016 Jul 26.

Prevalence odds ratio versus prevalence ratio: choice comes with consequences

Ashutosh R Tamhane  1 , Andrew O Westfall  1   2 , Greer A Burkholder  1 , Gary R Cutter  2
Affiliations

Prevalence odds ratio versus prevalence ratio: choice comes with consequences

Ashutosh R Tamhane et al. Stat Med. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Odds ratio, risk ratio, and prevalence ratio are some of the measures of association which are often reported in research studies quantifying the relationship between an independent variable and the outcome of interest. There has been much debate on the issue of which measure is appropriate to report depending on the study design. However, the literature on selecting a particular category of the outcome to be modeled and/or change in reference group for categorical independent variables and the effect on statistical significance, although known, is scantly discussed nor published with examples. In this article, we provide an example of a cross-sectional study wherein prevalence ratio was chosen over (Prevalence) odds ratio and demonstrate the analytic implications of the choice of category to be modeled and choice of reference level for independent variables. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: association; odds ratio; prevalence odds ratio; prevalence ratio; risk ratio.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Greenland S. Interpretation and choice of effect measures in epidemiologic analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1987;125:761–8. - PubMed
    1. Zocchetti C, Consonni D, Bertazzi P. Estimation of prevalence rate ratios from cross-sectional data. International Journal of Epidemiology. 1995;24:1064–5. - PubMed
    1. Axelson O, Fredriksson M, Ekberg K. Use of the prevalence ratio v the prevalence odds ratio in view of confounding in cross sectional studies. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 1995;52:494–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hughes K. Odds ratios in cross-sectional studies. International Journal of Epidemiology. 1995;24:463–4. - PubMed
    1. Lee J. Odds ratio or relative risk for cross-sectional data. International Journal of Epidemiology. 1994;23:201–3. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources