The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #109944 Message #2302193
Posted By: Wolfgang
31-Mar-08 - 01:30 PM
Thread Name: BS: Processed meats---Cancer of the bowel?
Subject: RE: BS: Processed meats---Cancer of the bowel?
Georgiansilver,
I bet the 20% you mention are not the absolute risk increase but the relative risk increase. All people who want to scare us use the figures of the relative risk increase because they are so much more impressing.
Example (with invented numbers):
Say the baserate of getting bowel cancer would be 4 in 10,000. If the processed meat eaters would have a rate of 5 in 10,000 that would be a 25% relative increase of the risk. Scaring?