Noise: Research

• Relative Risk

  • “Ratio of the probability of an event occurring in the exposed group versus the probability of the event occurring in the non-exposed group.”
  • Hypothetical EXAMPLE:
  • 17% of smokers develop lung cancer
  • 1% of nonsmokers develop lung cancer,
  • Then we can calculate the relative risk of lung cancer in smokers versus nonsmokers as:
  • Relative risk = 17% / 1% = 17.
  • Thus, smokers are 17 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers”
  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430824/

Odd Ratio

  • OR=1 Exposure does not affect odds of outcome
  • OR>1 Exposure associated with higher odds of outcome
  • OR<1 Exposure associated with lower odds of outcome
  • In practice, the 95% CI is often used as a proxy for the presence of statistical significance if it does not overlap the null value (e.g. OR=1)
  • https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2938757/