absolute risk

The probability of an individual experiencing a particular health related event over a specified time period.

Note 1: Absolute risk is calculated by dividing the number of people experiencing the event by the total number who could potentially experience the event.

Note 2: The same absolute risk can be expressed in different ways; for example, you can say you have 1 in 10 risk of developing a certain disease in your life and this can also be said to be a 10% risk or a 0.1 risk.