A 30% relative reduction sounds large and can mean a small absolute gain. For older patients weighing a daily tablet for prevention, the useful figure is how many events are avoided per hundred or thousand people over a set time, alongside the common side effects.
Giving both the absolute benefit and the time to benefit lets the patient match the decision to their own priorities, which in late life may weigh independence and tablet burden above cardiovascular events.
- State benefit as events avoided per 100 people over a stated number of years.
- Give the common side effects in the same units so the two can be compared.
- Ask what the patient most wants to avoid before recommending a preventive drug.
- Revisit the decision as health, frailty and life expectancy change.
Why it matters
Relative risk alone overstates the gain for an individual and undermines shared decisions.
Read the rest in the app
You have read your two free briefings this month. The app carries all 27 specialties, every morning, free — and this finding is waiting in it.
Scan to keep reading on your phone. No account needed to start.
Tomorrow morning, before your first patient
One edition a day for top clinical updates, written by the desk, every claim tied to its paper. Six minutes.
Get the app — free