News tagged with risk factors
New discovery in fight against deadly meningococcal disease
Professor Michael Jennings, Deputy Director of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, was part of an international team that discovered the previously unknown pathway of how the bacterium colonizes people.
Medical research
44 minutes ago |
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Air travel during pregnancy poses no significant risk, say experts
(Medical Xpress)—There is no significant risk directly associated with air travel during pregnancy, even at advanced gestation, says report by the University of Liverpool.
Health
2 hours ago |
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Depression linked to telomere enzyme, aging, chronic disease
(Medical Xpress)—The first symptoms of major depression may be behavioral, but the common mental illness is based in biology—and not limited to the brain.
Psychology & Psychiatry
2 hours ago |
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Canada lifts ban on gay men donating blood
Canadian health authorities lifted Wednesday what was effectively a ban on gay men giving blood, announcing new rules making men who have not had sex with men in the past five years eligible.
HIV & AIDS
18 hours ago |
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Obstructive sleep apnea associated with less visceral fat accumulation in women than men
A new study from researchers in Japan indicates that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is independently associated with visceral (abdominal) fat accumulation only in men, perhaps explaining gender differences in the impact of ...
Sleep apnea
18 hours ago |
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Low radiation scans help identify cancer in earliest stages
A study of veterans at high risk for developing lung cancer shows that low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) can be highly effective in helping clinicians spot tiny lung nodules which, in a small number of patients, may indicate ...
Cancer
May 21, 2013 |
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Genetic risk for obesity found in many Mexican young adults
As many as 35 percent of Mexican young adults may have a genetic predisposition for obesity, said a University of Illinois scientist who conducted a study at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosί.
Overweight and Obesity
May 21, 2013 |
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Study looks at risk factors for rupture or bleeding of arachnoid cysts in children
Arachnoid cysts are a common type of brain lesion that is usually harmless, but with a risk of rupture or bleeding. A new study identifies risk factors for rupture or bleeding in children with "incidentally" detected arachnoid ...
Surgery
May 21, 2013 |
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Eyes on the sun: Child sunshine exposure and eye development
(Medical Xpress)—Exposure to sunshine as a small child is crucial to the development of a healthy eye according to results of long-term myopia study conducted by University of Sydney researchers.
Ophthalmology
May 21, 2013 |
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Human-like opponents lead to more aggression in video game players, study finds
Video games that pit players against human-looking characters may be more likely to provoke violent thoughts and words than games where monstrous creatures are the enemy, according to a new study by researchers ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 20, 2013 |
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Which women should be screened for high cholesterol?
National guidelines recommend that at-risk women be screened for elevated cholesterol levels to reduce their chances of developing cardiovascular disease. But who is 'at risk?' The results of a study by investigators ...
Cardiology
May 20, 2013 |
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Atherosclerotic disease heredity mapped in nationwide study
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have mapped the significance of heredity for common forms of atherosclerotic disease. No studies have previously examined whether different forms of the disease share heredity.
Cardiology
May 20, 2013 |
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Genetic screening could reveal hidden high risk for coronary heart disease
Finnish researchers have shown that genetic marker information can improve risk evaluation of coronary heart disease. The study comprised over 24,000 Finnish subjects and was led by Professor Samuli Ripatti. The results revealed ...
Cardiology
May 20, 2013 |
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Study of young Israelis emphasizes need for avoidance of sun exposure for the very young
A new study conducted using extensive medical records of over one million Israeli adolescents before military service shows clearly how exposure to the Israeli sun of young, light-skinned children increases substantially ...
Cancer
May 20, 2013 |
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Researchers identify a potential new risk for sleep apnea: Asthma
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have identified a potential new risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea: asthma. Using data from the National Institutes of Health (Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)-funded Wisconsin ...
Sleep apnea
May 19, 2013 |
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Risk factor
A 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.
