Table 1 Four different ways of expressing the effect of preventive cholesterol-lowering therapy to a hypercholesterolaemic person
Format | Examples of ways of expression |
|---|---|
RRR | If a person with high cholesterol level like you takes the medicine, the risk of dying from a heart attack will be reduced by 33% within the next 10 years |
ARR | If people with high cholesterol level like you do not take the medicine on average 15 out of 100 people, 15%, will die of a heart attack within the next 10 years. However, if people take the medicine on average 10 out of 100, 10%, will die of a heart attack over the next 10 years. That means that on average 5% fewer persons will die |
NNT | If 20 people with high cholesterol level like you take the medicine, there will on average be one more alive after 10 years than if they do not take the medicine |
POL | If people with high cholesterol level like you take the medicine, for the rest of their lives they will on average live 8 months longer than if they do not take medicine |