For example, if 80 out of 100 exposed subjects have a particular disease and 50 out of 100 non-exposed

subjects have the disease, then the odds ratio (OR) is (80/20)/(50/50) = 4. However, the prevalence ratio
(PR) is (80/100)/(50/100) = 1.6. The latter indicates that the exposed subjects are only 1.6 times as likely
to have the disease as the non-exposed subjects, and this is the number in which most people would be
interested.

While all explanations are somewhat correct they freely make use concepts that are related but not the
same. Prevalence and risk are being used interchangeably, but they are actually different
epidemiologically and using them in the same way may cause confusion in some situations.

Risk is the probability of occurrence of a new event (say health outcome) over a period of time among
those who are at riskfor event occurrence (say developing/acquiring health outcome) at the beginning
of the follow up period. Risk is usually expressed as a value between 0 and 1, as all probabilities. It is
often estimated through follow-up or Cohort studies of two groups of subjects/individuals (with or
without some characteristics/attribute – usually called exposed and unexposed groups). So, the Risk
estimates the average probability of occurrence of an outcome over a specifiedperiod of time among
individuals at risk forhaving the outcome at the beginning of thefollow-up period.Prevalence is the
number or proportion of subjects/individuals with some attribute (can als be the level of
attribute/characteristics) or outcome (event) in a point in time or period of time. Prevalence is usually
expressed as a proportion (0 to 1as probabilities; or as percentages). It is usually derived from cross-
sectional studies or a random sample from a population of subjects/individuals in a point in time (or
period of time) – no need to specify a follow up period.Therefore, Prevalence Ratio (erroneously called
Prevalence Rate Ratio- because prevalence is not a rate) indicates how large is the prevalence of an
event/outcome in one group of subjects/individuals (with characteristics/attribute) relative to another
group (without the characteristics/attributes).While, the ratio of the risks (Risk Ratio or Cumulative
Incidence Ratio) indicates how more or less likely one a group of individuals/subjects with
attribute/characteristics (exposure) is to develop/acquire a health outcome or conditions over the
follow up period relative to the other group of unexposed.The mathematic of the Odds Ratio presented
are also correct, but colleagues are freely throwing the concepts of Prevalence Odds Ratio and Risk Odds
Ratio as interchangeable, while they are not for the reasons discussed above. The Exposure Odds Ratio
of derived from Case-Control Studies or a Risk Odds Ratio derived from a Cohort study are only
approximated estimates of RisK Ratio (or Relative Risk). The Prevalence Odds Ratio is not an
approximate measure of the Risk Ratio - it is a paremter on its own that can be used in cross-sectional
studies as a measure of the association between exposure/factors and the outcome of interest, without
any need to mention Risk ratio.In any circusntance in which an Odds Ratiois being estimated, it is
important to know which fundamental measure is being estimated indirectly by the Odds Ratio: Risk
ratio or Prevalence Ratio.Finally, in exceptional circunstances the Prevalence may estimate another
epidemiological measure the Incidence Rate (or incidence density), a true rate. In this situation the
Prevalence Ratio is actually estimating the Incidence Rate Ratio.