Ratio measures in leading medical journals: structured review of accessibility of underlying absolute risks

Abstract
Objective To examine the accessibility of absolute riskin articles reporting ratio measures in leading medical journals. Design Structured review of abstracts presenting ratio measures. ible with a wide range of changes in the riskof death: from 20% to 10%, from 1% to 0.5%, and from 0.0004% to 0.0002%. Effects presented in relative terms alone have been repeatedly shown to seem more impressive than the same effects presented in absolute terms in studies of physicians, 23 policy makers, 4 and patients. 56 Moreover, providing absolute risks has been shown to improve patients' comprehension of statements of both absolute riskreduction and relative riskreduction. 7