Body & HealthMental model
How many must take a treatment for one to benefit?
The Number Needed to Treat (NNT) answers exactly that. If a treatment cuts an event from 5 % to 4 %, the absolute difference is 1 % – the NNT is 100: a hundred people take it, one is spared. Statins for preventing heart attacks are in that range; some preventive measures and vaccines against rare diseases have an NNT above 1,000.
Useful: The NNT reveals what a relative percentage hides.
Source: en.wikipedia.org