What is the case-fatality rate defined as?

The case-fatality rate is defined as the proportion of individuals diagnosed with a particular condition who subsequently die from that condition within a specified time period. This measure provides insight into the severity of the disease and the effectiveness of treatment strategies by quantifying the lethality of a specific disease among diagnosed cases. It is often expressed as a percentage and is calculated using the formula:

Case-Fatality Rate = (Number of deaths from the disease / Number of diagnosed cases of the disease) × 100.

This rate is crucial in epidemiology and public health as it helps in understanding the burden of diseases and in planning medical resources. In contrast, other terms in the list reference different aspects of epidemiology; for instance, the risk of disease development pertains to incidence, while the odds ratio relates to studies comparing the odds of an outcome between groups. Negative predictive value deals with the probability of not having the disease when the test result is negative. These concepts, while important in understanding disease dynamics, do not pertain to calculating the lethality of a specific condition.