Multivitamins and Your risk

Multivitamins and Your risk
Headlines are designed to catch the eye and sensationalise. When looking at research results, it is important to understand how the results are presented.

You may have read about a recent study suggesting that taking multivitamins on a daily basis can increase your risk of getting breast cancer by 19%. Many women have contacted us asking if that means they have a 20% chance of getting breast cancer if they take multivitamins.

Closer examination of the results of the study in question showed that there was a difference in diagnoses between a large group of women over 10 years who said they did not take daily multivitamins, and a smaller group who said they did take multivitamins daily. The difference between the two groups was 19%. This is called a relative risk.

Expressed as an absolute risk, the same statistics say that over 10 years, 1 extra woman out of 1667 who took multivitamins on a daily basis would be diagnosed.

Increasingly a study or problem will be presented in an absolute way but the solution or outcome will be reported in a relative way to increase the perception of the results.

Manipulating study results should not undermine your choice or a health professional recommendation to take multivitamins or make choices regarding your health.