Question

Sickle cell anemia in the United States disproportionately affects African Americans; 1 in 700 African Americans are affected by sickle cell anemia, while only 1 in 160,000 Americans of European descent are affected. The absolute risk of a newborn African American child having sickle cell anemia is ____________%, and the relative risk compared to a newborn European American child is ____________-fold

Answer 1

0.0014; 0.0044

Step-by-step explanation:

The absolute risk (AR) of a disease refers to the risk of developing the disease over a given time period. In this case, the absolute risk of the newborn African American child having sickle cell anemia is equal to 1 individual with the disease over 700 individuals >> AR = 1 / 700 = 0.0014. Moreover, the Relative Risk (RR) is calculated by comparing the likelihood of the absolute risk occurring between two distinct groups. In this case, the relative risk for the newborn African American having sickle cell anemia compared to a newborn European American child can be calculated by dividing the absolute risk of the newborn European American child with the measured absolute risk of the newborn African American child >> RR = 0.0000625 / 0.0014 = 0.0044.