Relative risk reduction is useful metric to standardize effect size for public heath interventions for translational...

Heterogeneity of effect measures in intervention studies undermines the use of evidence to inform policy. Our objective was to develop a comprehensive algorithm to convert all types of effect measures to one standard metric, relative risk reduction (RRR).

This work was conducted to facilitate synthesis of published intervention effects for our epidemic modeling of the health impact of human immunodeficiency virus [HIV testing and counseling (HTC)]. We designed and implemented an algorithm to transform varied effect measures to RRR, representing the proportionate reduction in undesirable outcomes.

Our extraction of 55 HTC studies identified 473 effect measures representing unique combinations of intervention-outcome-population characteristics, using five outcome metrics: pre-post proportion (70.6%), odds ratio (14.0%), mean difference (10.2%), risk ratio (4.4%), and RRR (0.9%). Outcomes were expressed as both desirable (29.5%, eg, consistent condom use) and undesirable (70.5%, eg, inconsistent condom use). Using four examples, we demonstrate our algorithm for converting varied effect measures to RRR and provide the conceptual basis for advantages of RRR over other metrics.

Our review of the literature suggests that RRR, an easily understood and useful metric to convey risk reduction associated with an intervention, is underused by original and review studies.