It's all relative: how to understand cancer risk
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2016
Authors
Olver, I.
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The Conversation's cancer map shows that the risk of bowel cancer is 10% higher for men and women who have one standard alcoholic drink every day, than for those who don't drink any alcohol. This is known as "relative risk" and does not mean you have a 10% chance of getting bowel cancer if you drink one drink per day. As the map says, it means your risk of bowel cancer is 10% higher than the risk of someone who doesn't drink any alcohol. This 10% matters not only in relation to someone else, but also in relation to the absolute risk of getting the particular cancer in the first place. If the absolute risk is small, then a 10% increase still doesn't make your chances of getting cancer very high.
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Copyright 2016 the author. This publication is available under a Creative Commons Attribution NoDerrivatives licence. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/)