American Board of Surgery Qualifying Exam (ABS QE) Practice Test 2026 - Free Surgery Exam Practice Questions and Study Guide

The odds ratio (OR) is a statistical measure frequently utilized in epidemiology to assess the relationship between exposure to a risk factor and the occurrence of a disease. Specifically, it quantifies the odds of an event occurring in an exposed group relative to the odds of the same event in a non-exposed group. An OR greater than 1 indicates that exposure is associated with higher odds of disease, while an OR less than 1 suggests a protective effect of the exposure against the disease.

In contrast, follow-up analysis pertains to the study design and the assessment of outcomes over time rather than a specific metric for measuring relationships. Censoring refers to incomplete data in survival analysis due to individuals withdrawing from a study or not experiencing the event before the study ends; it does not measure relationships between exposure and disease. Activity mapping, while a method for visual representation of data, does not serve as a specific measure of association between exposure and disease either. Thus, the odds ratio is the most fitting choice for analyzing relationships.