Question

A cohort study following a group of 200 randomly selected adolescent females over 4 years finds the results shown in the table below.

	Drops Out of High School	Finishes High School	Totals
Pregnancy	36	24	60
No Pregnancy	56	84	140
Totals	92	108	200

*Review the McHugh & Welk readings and the Determining Risk Calculations handout in this week's lesson introduction and the Determining Risk PowerPoint presentation in the Instructional Materials section.

Then, answer the following questions:

Calculate the incidence rate (IR) for dropping out of high school. How do you interpret this result (in your own words)?

What is the attributable risk (AR) of dropping out of high school for adolescent females who become pregnant? How do you interpret this result (in your own words)?

Calculate the relative risk (RR) of dropping out of high school for adolescent females who become pregnant. Assuming your RR is significant, how do you interpret this result (in your own words)?

Answer 1

adolescents who are pregnant have the absolute risk of high school drop outs of about 60% and the adolescents with no pregnancy with the absolute risk of high school drop outs of about 40%.

46% of incidence rate in school dropouts irrespective of wether they are pregnant and non-pregnant.

Relative risk of dropping out of high school for adolescent females who become pregnant was 66.6%.

It can be calculated using the formula:

Relative risk=Absolute risk in treatment group divided byAbsolute risk in control group