SAMPLE 1 — Large relative risk, tiny absolute risk Input: TARGET AUDIENCE: a patient with no medical/statistics background READING LEVEL: plain English, no jargon at all OUTPUT LANGUAGE: English Result: The drug increased the relative risk of condition X by 100%, from 1 case per 10,000 patients to 2 cases per 10,000. Output: Plain-language explanation: This drug doubles the chance of developing condition X compared to not taking it — that's what "100% higher relative risk" means. But in real numbers, this goes from about 1 person out of every 10,000 to about 2 people out of every 10,000. So while the risk is twice as high in relative terms, the actual number of extra cases caused by the drug is small — roughly 1 additional case for every 10,000 people who take it. What this does NOT mean: This does not mean the drug gives you a 100% chance, or even a high chance, of developing condition X — "100% increase" describes how much the risk went up compared to the starting point, not the total chance itself. It also doesn't mean this risk is meaningless just because the absolute numbers are small — for some people, especially if condition X is serious, even a small absolute increase can matter, and it's reasonable to want to know about it. Analogy: Imagine a very rare kind of coin flip that normally comes up "heads" (meaning you develop the condition) only once in 10,000 flips. This drug makes it come up heads about twice in 10,000 flips instead — twice as often, but still a rare event either way. One-sentence takeaway: The drug doubles the relative chance of condition X, but in real terms that means about 1 extra case per 10,000 people — a real increase, but still an uncommon outcome overall.