Public
"Doubles the risk" can mean 1 in 10,000 becoming 2 in 10,000, or 10 in 100 becoming 20. Relative figures sound large and say nothing about scale until you know the starting rate. Gigerenzer and colleagues found that this framing misleads patients, journalists and physicians, and they recommend stating absolute risks. In their example, a 25% drop in breast cancer deaths from mammography meant about 1 fewer death per 1,000 women. When a note uses a percentage change, give the base rate or cite a source that does.
