Thank you for your post. I agree with you: that the risk ratio is just that: a risk and not the actual disease. Another way that these two measures differ is in the usage: while odds ratio are mainly used in case control studies, RR are used in cohort studies ( Lachin & Ebrary, 2011). Relative risk is used on cohort studies to investigate if exposure to a treatment or lifestyle choice affects the risk of a disease or outcome. The exposure can be a risk factor, such as smoking or a beneficial factor, such as exercise ( El -Masri, 2013). A relative risk is the ratio of risk of a disease or outcome if a life style choice or treatment is present, relative to that life style choice or treatment being absent. Since the formula of obtaining the
