Notice: On April 23, 2014, Statalist moved from an email list to a forum, based at statalist.org.
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: st: Odds ratio
From
Marcello Pagano <[email protected]>
To
[email protected]
Subject
Re: st: Odds ratio
Date
Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:43:17 -0400
True. Just like relative risks.
m.p.
Richard Williams wrote:
At 01:38 PM 4/9/2010, Marcello Pagano wrote:
Bookmakers have no problem interpreting odds.
Why people go through all sorts of contortions to avoid odds when they
are as natural as probabilities is beyond me.
If you take m/n as your probability then m/(n-m) are your odds. One is
easier than the other? Very odd.
Odds aren't bad, but odds ratios are much harder. If you tell me the
odds are 4, I know that is the same as an 80% chance of success. But,
if you tell me the odds ratio is 4, that is much vaguer because there
are an infinite number of ways to get such a ratio. It could be that
the odds for the two things being compared are 4:1, 8:2, 20:5, .4:.1,
etc. etc. etc. Unless I know what the odds are for one of the things
being compared is, it is hard for me to have much perspective on what
the odds ratio really means in practice.
And while I don't think odds are a hard concept, I personally still
tend to convert them into probabilities.
-------------------------------------------
Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
OFFICE: (574)631-6668, (574)631-6463
HOME: (574)289-5227
EMAIL: [email protected]
WWW: http://www.nd.edu/~rwilliam
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/