e-Patient Training Topic: National Article Reports Relative Risk, Not Raw Data.
August 14, 2009 · Filed Under e-pts resources, general, news & gossip, policy issues, understanding statistics · 6 Comments
Important update: it turns out the writer did get it right, and this was an editing error at the Boston Globe. See my comment August 17.
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As empowered, engaged patients we have a responsibility to evaluate the articles we read. A case in point is this week’s Associated Press article Any Spread Of Breast Cancer Raises Risk Of Return. It’s about a paper in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine that found a 50% increase in the chance of cancer recurring, and quotes an expert as saying
“I think it will influence treatment. If we’re considering treating the patient, we probably should.”
Can you spot the flaw in that reasoning, if all you have is that number? That’s all the article reported, and that’s a problem.
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