三种常用危险度测量方法之间的关系：相对危险度、危险差和比值比

摘要

概述：相对危险度(relative risk)、危险差(risk difference)和比值比(odds ratio)是最常用的三种比较不同群体之间疾病风险的方法。虽然它们在生物医学和社会心理学研究中广泛流行，但是尚无文献明确这三种方法之间的关系。许多研究人员误以为它们之间的关系是单调变化的，即某种测量方式中较高（或较低）的值与其它测量方式中的较高（或较低）的值相关。本文中，我们讨论了三个定理，并提供例子解释之前大部分研究人员所认为这三种方法之间的关系是不对的；这些测量方法相互之间并没有逻辑关系。研究人员在说明不同种测量方法之间的相关性时或结合使用不同种风险测量方法所得的研究结果时必须非常谨慎。%Summary: The relative risk, risk difference, and odds ratio are the three most commonly used measures for comparing the risk of disease between different groups. Although widely popular in biomedical and psychosocial research, the relationship among the three measures has not been clarified in the literature. Many researchers incorrectly assume a monotonic relationship, such that higher (or lower) values in one measure are associated with higher (or lower) values in the other measures. In this paper we discuss three theorems and provide examples demonstrating that this is not the case; there is no logical relationship between any of these measures. Researchers must be very cautious when implying a relationship between the different measures or when combining results of studies that use different measures of risk.