Question

1.        What are the uses of attributable risk

1.        To the physician responsible for preventative measures

   b.    To the physician responsible for health planning for large groups

(epidemiology question)

Answer 1

Attributable risk has major applications in clinical practice and public health. A large absolute difference may indicate a potentially important public health problem. Absolute differences can’t be used alone, but should be used together with ratio measures of association (e.g., relative risk). Magnitude of difference does not necessarily indicate the strength of association between exposure and outcome because it is influenced by size of measure of occurrence in unexposed group.