If I am doing a cross sectional study can I represent the results by calculating the Relative Risk.
You cannot use the relative risk because you do not have incidence data. Prevalent cases may not be good measures of incidence where the disorder is brief, episodic or fatal.
However, you can use the prevalence ratio, which is easier to interpret than the odds ratio. Indeed, many people report what are prevalence ratios but call them relative risks. While this habit is common, it is not to be encouraged. The ratio of two prevalences is, well, a prevalence ratio.
Relative risk can't be applied for cross sectional study. I do agree with Dr. Conroy.
Hi Abinash, you can't use relative risk for this type of study. A prevalence ratio is fine but the usual reported measure is the odds ratio. Here a nice article explaining all about it, including how it's calculated;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2938757/.
Also, a lot of people find the difference between odds and odds ratio a little confusing so here's an explanation i thought was quite helpful. It's a bit mathematical in its explanation but hopefully you find it useful.
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/statistics/odds-ratio-versus-odds/
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