Which statement best describes research-attributable risks?

• A. All the risks associated with the research
• B. All the risks a participant is ordinarily exposed to, plus any risks specific to the research
• C. All the risks a participant is exposed to during the period of the research
• D. All the risks related to the intervention, including unrelated events

Answer: (A)

The idea being tested is what counts as risks that come from taking part in a study. Research-attributable risks are the harms that occur because of participating in the research—the risks tied to the research procedures, interventions, or data collection itself. It’s not about risks you’d face anyway in daily life, or about any random events unrelated to the study. So the best description is all the risks associated with the research—the complete set of potential harms that arise from being in the study. The other ways of framing it either include baseline risks you’d encounter without the study, or restrict/expand to things not directly linked to the research, which isn’t what “research-attributable” aims to capture.