Question

Why is the odds ratio valuable?

Answer 1

Odds ratio is a quantity that gives a quantitative measure of association between two events. Odds ratio can be defined as the ratio of odds of event 1 in the presence of event 2 to the odds of event 1 in the absence of event 2. Odds ratio used in logistic regression is quite a generalization. The odds ratio proves to be helpful in number of different situations. If odds ratio = 1, it implies that odds of event 1 does not depend on the presence or absence of event 2 because odds of event 1 in presence of event 2 is same as odds of event 1 in absence of event 2. That means both the events are independent. A value greater than 1 indicates positive association and a value less than 1 indicates negative association.