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Reporting the findings: Absolute vs relative risk
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Absolute Differences between the effects of two treatments matter more to most people than Relative Differences.
Key Concepts addressed:Details
Why you should always use absolute risk numbers:
“New drug cuts heart attack risk in half.”
Sounds like a great drug, huh?
Yet it sounds significantly less great when you realize we’re actually talking about a 2% risk dropping to a 1% risk. The risk halved, but in a far less impressive fashion.
That’s why absolute numbers matter: They provide readers with enough information to determine the true size of the benefit. In more detail: