risk

The probability that an event will occur.

- attributable r. the rate of a disease or other outcome in exposed individuals that can be attributed to the exposure.

- competing r. an event that removes a subject from being at r. for an outcome under investigation.

- empiric r. r. that is based on empiric evidence alone, without any appeal to formal theory or surmise.

- radiation risks the risks to health posed by exposure to radiation. Sources of exposure are both natural and artificial ( e.g., medical and occupational). See background radiation.Excessive exposure to ionizing radiation is associated with increased r. of malignant diseases, particularly of the skin and blood-forming organs; increased r. of abnormal variation in reproductive cells, with the possibility of abnormality in offspring; and increased r. of fetal abnormality from maternal exposure during early pregnancy. For most people, natural sources account for the bulk of received radiation, with artificial sources adding only a small percentage to the average annual dose. Public perception of the hazards of radiation is often at odds with scientific positions on the subject. Equivocal research results (as in attempts to assess the added cancer r. posed by mammograms) have contributed to public fears. Some studies have concluded that, whether or not public fears of nuclear power plants are justified, the added stress caused by such fears in itself constitutes a threat to health.

- recurrence r. r. that a disease will occur elsewhere in a pedigree, given that at least one member of the pedigree (the proband) exhibits the disease.

- relative r. the ratio of the r. of disease among those exposed to a r. factor to the r. among those not exposed.

* * *

Risk Intervention Skills Study

* * *

risk 'risk n

1) possibility of loss, injury, disease, or death <hypertension increases the \risk of stroke>

2) a person considered in terms of the possible bad effects of a particular course of treatment <a poor surgical \risk> - at risk characterized by high risk or susceptibility (as to disease) <patients at risk of developing infections>

* * *

(risk) [Fr. risque, from L. resecare to cut off] a danger or hazard, the probability of suffering harm or other unfavorable outcome.