Related topics: heart disease , risk
Risk factor
hideA risk factor is a variable associated with an increased risk of disease or infection. Risk factors are correlational and not necessarily causal, because correlation does not imply causation. For example, being young cannot be said to cause measles, but young people are more at risk as they are less likely to have developed immunity during a previous epidemic.
Risk factors are evaluated by comparing the risk of those exposed to the potential risk factor to those not exposed. Let's say that at a wedding, 74 people ate the chicken and 22 of them were ill, while of the 35 people who had the fish or vegetarian meal only 2 were ill. Did the chicken make the people ill?
So the chicken eaters' risk = 22/74 = 0.297 And non-chicken eaters' risk = 2/35 = 0.057.
Those who ate the chicken had a risk over five times as high as those who did not, suggesting that eating chicken was the cause of the illness. Note, however, that this is not proof. Statistical methods would be used in a less clear cut case to decide what level of risk the risk factor would have to present to be able to say the risk factor is linked to the disease (for example in a study of the link between smoking and lung cancer). Even then, no amount of statistical analysis could prove that the risk factor causes the disease; this could only be proven using direct methods such as a medical explanation of the disease's roots.
The earliest use of risk factor analysis dates back to Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (1020s), though the term "risk factor" was first coined by heart researcher Dr. Thomas R. Dawber in a landmark scientific paper in 1961, where he attributed heart disease to specific conditions (blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking).
For more information about Risk factor, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with risk factors
Childhood traumas linger as health risk factors for adults
16 hours ago |
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Research from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London has found that negative experiences in childhood may alter not only mental health but also physical health, into middle age and beyond.
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Coffee Consumption Associated with Reduced Risk of Advanced Prostate Cancer
13 hours ago |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- While it is too early for physicians to start advising their male patients to take up the habit of regular coffee drinking, data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers ...
Not all parents place their babies 'back to sleep,' research finds
16 hours ago |
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Placing infants on their backs for sleep can help reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). But a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues shows that while the practice helped reduce ...
In search of the root causes of the 2008 crisis: New York Fed to hear new theory on financial meltdown
17 hours ago |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Anjan Thakor, finance professor at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, will present a new theory on the causes of the financial crisis to a meeting of the New York Federal Reserve ...
Scientists chase deadly MRSA bacteria with new models
17 hours ago |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Ten years ago, Chicago hospitals were at ground zero when the deadly MRSA bacterium, till then confined to hospitals, learned some new tricks and spilled out into the community. This year, ...
Antidepressant Can Change Patient's Personality
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
18 hours ago |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The nation is still debating the effects of antidepressant medications on brain chemistry almost 20 years after publication of the best-seller "Listening to Prozac." Though selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ...
College football linemen take one for the team in terms of health
20 hours ago |
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The high-intensity exercise performed by college football linemen does not protect them from obesity, related health problems and the potential for cardiovascular disease later in life, new research suggests.
Type 2 diabetes gene predisposes children to obesity
21 hours ago |
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Pediatric researchers have found that a gene already implicated in the development of type 2 diabetes in adults also raises the risk of being overweight during childhood. The finding sheds light on the genetic origins of ...
New screening tool helps identify children at risk
23 hours ago |
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When a baby is born, new parents often wonder, "Will he be the next President of the United States?" or "Could she be the one to find a cure for cancer?" But the underlying question for many specialists is, "Is this child ...
Delinquent boys at increased risk of premature death and disability by middle age
23 hours ago |
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Men who have a history of delinquency in childhood are more likely to die or become disabled by the time they are 48, and not just from the obvious consequences of antisocial behaviour, new research indicates.
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