Risk factor

Under risk factor is understood in medicine is an increased likelihood to purchase a certain disease when certain physiological or anatomical characteristics, genetic predisposition or environmental constellations exist. The properties themselves are, for example, referred to as disposition, expressed the environmental influences as exposure, the frequency as a mathematical factor.

The term of the risk factor is represented epidemiologically precise means of a descriptive statistic. The properties of two groups with the frequency of a particular disease are compared. This resulting factor (expressed as odds ratio or relative risk ) indicates by how many times more often a disease occurs in a particular property or constellation in comparison to a control group.

The statistically determined risk factor is not evidence of an actual causal relationship between property and disease, since it is a purely descriptive ( descriptive ) measure an observed frequency. Insofar can identify risk factors only an indication of a possible cause of a disease (etiology ). He is busy or does not explain it. The causal relationship is often known in diseases that are at increased risk to develop a second disease. It also speaks of an underlying disease and the risk of secondary disease (secondary disease). A well- studied example is the increased risk for diabetes mellitus, of suffering from renal failure.

Frequently investigated and taken up in the media risk constellations are, for example, alcohol abuse, obesity, diet, physical inactivity and tobacco smoking, which are associated with other changing risk factors for specific diseases. Linguistically, here the term risk factor is used incorrectly. Often an unproven or not demonstrable causal relationship between a single factor and a disease is suspected and this ( unscientific ) as a risk factor. Often, the property itself is wrongly described as a risk factor and not the frequency, for example, in phrases such as " Smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer ." Would be correct, the statement that a risk factor of 7.8 is in smokers for the occurrence of cancer.

Some risk factors - such as chronic anger, which is an even stronger predictor of heart disease than, for example high blood pressure - are indeed scientifically demonstrated to play in the social discourse but hardly a role.