--- title: "Converting Between Probabilities, Odds (Ratios), and Risk Ratios" output: rmarkdown::html_vignette: toc: true fig_width: 10.08 fig_height: 6 tags: [r, effect size, rules of thumb, guidelines, conversion] vignette: > \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} %\VignetteIndexEntry{Converting Between Probabilities, Odds (Ratios), and Risk Ratios} %\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown} editor_options: chunk_output_type: console bibliography: bibliography.bib --- ```{r message=FALSE, warning=FALSE, include=FALSE} library(knitr) options(knitr.kable.NA = "") knitr::opts_chunk$set(comment = ">") options(digits = 3) ``` The `effectsize` package contains function to convert among indices of effect size. This can be useful for meta-analyses, or any comparison between different types of statistical analyses. # Converting Between *p* and Odds Odds are the ratio between a probability and its complement: $$ Odds = \frac{p}{1-p} $$ $$ p = \frac{Odds}{Odds + 1} $$ Say your bookies gives you the odds of Doutelle to win the horse race at 13:4, what is the probability Doutelle's will win? Manually, we can compute $\frac{13}{13+4}=0.765$. Or we can Odds of 13:4 can be expressed as $(13/4):(4/4)=3.25:1$, which we can convert: ```{r} library(effectsize) odds_to_probs(13 / 4) # or odds_to_probs(3.25) # convert back probs_to_odds(0.764) ``` Will you take that bet? ## Odds are *not* Odds Ratios Note that in logistic regression, the non-intercept coefficients represent the (log) odds ratios, not the odds. $$ OR = \frac{Odds_1}{Odds_2} = \frac{\frac{p_1}{1-p_1}}{\frac{p_2}{1-p_2}} $$ The intercept, however, *does* represent the (log) odds, when all other variables are fixed at 0. # Converting Between Odds Ratios, Risk Ratios and Absolute Risk Reduction Odds ratio, although popular, are not very intuitive in their interpretations. We don't often think about the chances of catching a disease in terms of *odds*, instead we instead tend to think in terms of *probability* or some event - or the *risk*. Talking about *risks* we can also talk about the *change in risk*, either as a *risk ratio* (*RR*), or a(n *absolute) risk reduction* (ARR). For example, if we find that for individual suffering from a migraine, for every bowl of brussels sprouts they eat, their odds of reducing the migraine increase by an $OR = 3.5$ over a period of an hour. So, should people eat brussels sprouts to effectively reduce pain? Well, hard to say... Maybe if we look at *RR* we'll get a clue. We can convert between *OR* and *RR* for the following formula [@grant2014converting]: $$ RR = \frac{OR}{(1 - p0 + (p0 \times OR))} $$ Where $p0$ is the base-rate risk - the probability of the event without the intervention (e.g., what is the probability of the migraine subsiding within an hour without eating any brussels sprouts). If it the base-rate risk is, say, 85%, we get a *RR* of: ```{r} OR <- 3.5 baserate <- 0.85 (RR <- oddsratio_to_riskratio(OR, baserate)) ``` That is - for every bowl of brussels sprouts, we increase the chances of reducing the migraine by a mere 12%! Is if worth it? Depends on you affinity to brussels sprouts... Similarly, we can look at ARR, which can be converted via $$ ARR = RR \times p0 - p0 $$ ```{r} riskratio_to_arr(RR, baserate) ``` Or directly: ```{r} oddsratio_to_arr(OR, baserate) ``` Note that the base-rate risk is crucial here. If instead of 85% it was only 4%, then the *RR* would be: ```{r} oddsratio_to_riskratio(OR, 0.04) ``` That is - for every bowl of brussels sprouts, we increase the chances of reducing the migraine by a whopping 318%! Is if worth it? I guess that still depends on your affinity to brussels sprouts... # References