The avoidable risk (which, of course, is avoidable if we neutralize the effect of exposure to a particular phenomenon) is the opposite to the attributable risk. In other words, it is the difference between the risk encountered by nonexposed individuals and that encountered by individuals exposed to the phenomenon.
HISTORY
See risk.
MATHEMATICAL ASPECTS
By definition we have:
DOMAINS AND LIMITATIONS
The avoidable risk was introduced in order to avoid the need for defining a negative attributable risk. It allows us to calculate the number of patients that will need to be treated, because:
See also attributable risk.
EXAMPLES
As an example, consider a study of the efficiency of a drug used to treat an illness.
The 223 patients included in the...
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Lilienfeld, A.M., Lilienfeld, D.E.: Foundations of Epidemiology, 2nd edn. Clarendon, Oxford (1980)
MacMahon, B., Pugh, T.F.: Epidemiology: Principles and Methods. Little Brown, Boston, MA (1970)
Morabia, A.: Epidemiologie Causale. Editions Médecine et Hygiène, Geneva (1996)
Morabia, A.: L'Épidémiologie Clinique. Editions “Que sais-je?”. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris (1996)
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© 2008 Springer-Verlag
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(2008). Avoidable Risk. In: The Concise Encyclopedia of Statistics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32833-1_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32833-1_18
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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