Master Attributable Risk (AR) with Picmonic for Medicine

Attributable risk describes how much an exposed group’s risk of disease is increased or decreased due to exposure to the risk factor.

The concept of attributable risk measures the percentage that exposure to a risk factor correlates to the incidence of disease in a population. Attributable risk is calculated and correlates to the incidence of new cases of disease.

Attributable risk is equal to incidence of disease in the exposed group - incidence of disease in the unexposed group.

Expressed as a percentage, this is the group of individuals who have been exposed to a risk factor and may or may not have disease.

The number of subjects who were both exposed and have disease (a) is divided by the sum of these same individuals (a) in addition to the subjects who were exposed but do not have disease (b).

This subtraction step should be carried out last. First, calculate the two percentages for the exposed and unexposed groups before subtracting.

Expressed as a percentage, this is the group of individuals who have never been exposed to the risk factor and may or may not have disease.

The number of subjects who have never been exposed but are diseased (c) is divided by the sum of these same individuals (c) in addition to the subjects who do not have exposure or disease (d).