Communicating risks at the population level: application of population impact numbers

摘要

Methods of communicating health risks to health policy makers have been neglected. Decision makers require easily understandable measures that show the impact of risk factors for disease on populations to help guide the allocation of resources according to local health needs. The population impact number of eliminating a risk factor (PIN-ER-t) is "the potential number of disease events prevented in your population over the next t years by eliminating a risk factor". The P1N-ER-t can be used to show the impact of a range of risk factors in different populations and to compare the potential benefits of individual and population approaches to prevention.