Question

With respect to the table below:

A. What is the Relative Risk?

B. What is the Attributable Risk?

C.  Describe the interpretation of the responses to A and B.

Exposed to Solvents	Liver Cancer	No Liver Cancer
Yes	3	104
No	2	601

Answer 1

A) Relative risk = ( % of Incidence amongst exposed ) / ( % of Incidence amongst non exposed )

Therefore the relative risk here is 8.4533 or 845.33%

B) Attributable risk is computed as:

= % of Incidence amongst exposed - % of Incidence amongst non exposed

Therefore the attributable risk is 0.0247 or 2.47%

C) The relative risk in part A) gives the measure of strength of association and indicator which shows the probability of the causal relationship of the exposure. Therefore there is a much greater chance for the exposed ones to get cancer.

While the attributable risk in part B) gives the measure of potential for prevention of liver cancer if the exposure is eliminated. In a sense there is a 2.47% disease risk that is attributed to the exposure.