What is a good relative risk value?

Asked by: Ardella Boehm  |  Last update: July 20, 2025
Score: 4.5/5 (15 votes)

When a treatment has an RR greater than 1, the risk of a bad outcome is increased by the treatment; when the RR is less than 1, the risk of a bad outcome is decreased, meaning that the treatment is likely to do good.

Is a relative risk of 2 high?

As a measure of effect size, an RR value is generally considered clinically significant if it is less than 0.50 or more than 2.00; that is, if the risk is at least halved, or more than doubled.

What does RR greater than 1 mean?

A relative risk of one implies there is no difference of the event if the exposure has or has not occurred. If the relative risk is greater than 1, then the event is more likely to occur if there was exposure. If the relative risk is less than 1, then the event is less likely to occur if there was exposure.

What does a relative risk of 0.75 mean?

2c) A risk ratio of 0.75 means there is an inverse association, i.e. there is a decreased risk for the health outcome among the exposed group when compared with the unexposed group. The exposed group has 0.75 times the risk of having the health outcome when compared with the unexposed group.

What does a relative risk of 1.25 mean?

Say a study shows women who don't exercise (inactive women) have a 25% higher breast cancer risk compared to women who do exercise (active women). This statistic is a relative risk (the relative risk is 1.25). It means inactive women are 25% more likely to develop breast cancer than women who exercise.

Risk, Rate and Odds

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What does a relative risk of 2.0 mean?

For example, when the RR is 2.0 the chance of a bad outcome is twice as likely to occur with the treatment as without it, whereas an RR of 0.5 means that the chance of a bad outcome is twice as likely to occur without the intervention. When the RR is exactly 1, the risk is unchanged.

What does a relative risk of 0.85 mean?

A relative risk of 0.85 corresponds to a relative risk reduction of 0.15% or 15%. The right interpretation of the odds ratio of 0.70 in the study by Lin et al is that for every point increase in the score of pain severity, the odds of having the response decrease by 0.70.

How to tell if a relative risk is statistically significant?

For a two-tailed test (Z=1.96), any relative risk of at least 2.8 is statistically significant provided N*P1 is at least five. Any relative risk of at least 1.55 is statistically significant if N*P1 is at least 30. Figure 5 is certainly a simple shortcut.

What does a risk ratio of 0.70 mean?

Digressing again, an RR of 1.30 means that the risk is increased by 30%, and an RR of 0.70 means that the risk is reduced by 30%. From the discussion in this section, we can understand why these values for increase and the decrease are not equal in magnitude.

What does an odds ratio of 0.9 mean?

0.9 or 90% tells us the amount or the percentage of odds respectively that the result is lower compared to the control (In the above 7.7 was higher). Our interpretation takes a similar shape – The odds of disease risk awareness among people who are sick is 90% lower compared to the odds of people who are healthy. (

What is a good RR range?

When checking respiration, it is important to also note whether a person has any difficulty breathing. Normal respiration rates for an adult person at rest range from 12 to 16 breaths per minute.

What does RR of 1.5 mean?

For example, a relative risk of 1.5 means that the risk of the outcome of interest is 50% higher in the exposed group than in the unexposed group, while a relative risk of 3.0 means that the risk in the exposed group is three times as high as in the unexposed group.

What is a good RR ratio?

How the Risk/Reward Ratio Works. In many cases, market strategists find the ideal risk/reward ratio for their investments to be approximately 1:3, or three units of expected return for every one unit of additional risk.

Is 2% a high risk?

Clinical experience suggests that a mortality risk of 1% or lower is "low" risk. Several of my colleagues believe medium risk should be 2-5% with high risk as having a mortality risk greater than 5%.

How to interpret RR?

A relative risk or odds ratio greater than one indicates an exposure to be harmful, while a value less than one indicates a protective effect. RR = 1.2 means exposed people are 20% more likely to be diseased, RR = 1.4 means 40% more likely. OR = 1.2 means that the odds of disease is 20% higher in exposed people.

What does a relative risk RR of 10.5 mean?

10.2 Relative risk

Values above 1 indicate increased risk, while values below 1 suggest decreased risk. Understanding relative risk is essential for interpreting study results and prioritizing interventions.

What is an acceptable risk ratio?

Determining Acceptability

In basic terms, any benefit-risk ratio greater than 1 is favorable (i.e., the benefit value is greater than the risk value).

What does a risk ratio of 0.75 mean?

For example, a risk ratio of 0.75 translates to a relative risk reduction of 25%, as in the example above. The risk difference is often referred to as the absolute risk reduction (ARR), and may be presented as a percentage (for example, 1%), as a decimal (for example, 0.01), or as counts (for example, 10 out of 1000).

Is a higher OR lower risk ratio better?

If the RR/OR/HR >1, and the CI does not include 1, events are significantly more likely in the treatment than the control group. If the RR/OR/HR <1, and the CI does not include 1, events are significantly less likely in the treatment than the control group.

What is a high relative risk?

A relative risk of greater than one or of less than one usually means that being exposed to a certain substance or factor either increases (relative risk greater than one) or decreases (relative risk less than one) the risk of cancer, or that the treatments being compared do not have the same effects.

How to interpret hazard ratio and CI?

It is interpreted in exactly the same way as a relative risk, the further the HR he is away from 1.0, the greater the effect size. If the 95% CI around the hazard ratio crosses 1.0 (ie, the line of no effect) then the result is consistent with no difference (null hypothesis).

What does RR value mean?

The relative risk (RR) or risk ratio is the ratio of the probability of an outcome in an exposed group to the probability of an outcome in an unexposed group. Together with risk difference and odds ratio, relative risk measures the association between the exposure and the outcome.

What is a good risk percentage?

As a guide, a safe and good risk percentage will be from 1% – 3%. Anything higher than 3% will be relatively risky.

What does a relative risk of 0.5 mean?

• The OR of 0.17 does not mean that the risk has been reduced by 83%. • It means the odds in Group A is 0.17 times the odds in Group B • The RR of 0.50 means that the risk has been reduced by 50% (halved).

What does a hazard ratio of 0.7 mean?

As a statistical measure, the hazard ratio can be difficult to interpret. For example, in a trial with a mortality outcome, a hazard ratio of 0.7 cannot be interpreted as a 30% reduction in the risk of mortality; rather, it means a 30% reduction in the rate of mortality (i.e., the time to mortality is slower).