risk difference Alejandra Gonzalez-Beltran ARD RD absolute risk difference Brian S. Alper, Muhammad Afzal, Joanne Dehnbostel, Harold Lehmann, Janice Tufte Philippe Rocca-Serra The risk difference is the difference between the observed risks (proportions of individuals with the outcome of interest) in the two groups. The risk difference is straightforward to interpret: it describes the actual difference in the observed risk of events between experimental and control interventions. http://handbook.cochrane.org/chapter_9/9_2_2_4_measure_of_absolute_effect_the_risk_difference.htm absolute difference ready for release