Relative risk - absolute risk - etc
What do those numbers means
Would you be willing to take drug X daily for the next 5 years if significant results from randomised placebo controlled trials showed that:
- patients taking this drug for 5 years have 34% fewer heart attacks than patients taking placebo; or
- 2.7% of the patients taking this drug for 5 years had a heart attack, comparing to 4.1% taking a placebo, a difference of 1.4%; or
- if 71 patients took this drug for five years the drug would prevent one from having a heart attack. There is no way of knowing in advance which person that might be.
Did you make the same decision for all three scenarios? If not, you were fooled by the numbers, because the three scenarios represent the same data from the same trial presented to you in three different ways.
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