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Review
. 2023 Dec;55(12):3147-3152.
doi: 10.1007/s11255-023-03626-w. Epub 2023 May 10.

Measures of frequency and effect in clinical research

Graziella D'Arrigo #  1 , Mercedes Gori #  2 , Annalisa Pitino  2 , Dimitrios G Tsalikakis  3 , Vassilios Liakopoulos  4   5 , Stefanos Roumeliotis #  6 , Giovanni Tripepi #  1
Affiliations
Review

Measures of frequency and effect in clinical research

Graziella D'Arrigo et al. Int Urol Nephrol. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

The assessment of risk and effect size of a specific endpoint associated to the presence/absence of a certain exposure is a hallmark in clinical and epidemiological research. In fact, before recommending any treatment, it is mandatory to investigate the magnitude of the benefits and harms between the exposure under investigation (e.g. a given treatment) and a specific disease or event. To do this, clinicians and statisticians use absolute (risk differences, number needed to treat, likelihood to be helped or harmed) and relative (risk ratio, incidence rate ratio, hazard ratio and odds ratio) measures of effect. Herein, using a series of clinical examples, we aim to present a step by step methodologic approach of measures of effect in the area of nephrology and urology.

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