Subject: Re: st: Odds ratio

["Clyde Schechter" <clyde.schechter@einstein.yu.edu>]

Although not precisely analogous, I think of the odds ratio vs. risk ratio
issue as being a bit like temperature measurements in different units. 
It's mostly a matter of what you're accustomed to.  Just as it is easy to
convert between odds and probabilities, it is also easy to convert
temperatures between Farenheit and Celsius.  Yet, having grown up in the
US, I have had, as far back as I can remember, an instinctive
understanding of what a given Farenheit temperature feels like and its
implications for getting dressed.  But only after extensive travels to
Europe was I finally able to intuitively understand temperatures reported
in Celsius.  And notwithstanding a physical chemistry course in college, I
still have no intuitions about temperatures reported in Kelvins.


Clyde Schechter, MA MD
Associate Professor of Family & Social Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA



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