lnOR
lnOR refers to the natural logarithm of the odds ratio and is widely used in statistics as a measure of association between a binary exposure and a binary outcome. Taking the logarithm stabilizes variance and yields quantities that are approximately normally distributed under standard conditions, which simplifies estimation, hypothesis testing, and meta-analysis. In many applied contexts, lnOR serves as the primary effect size.
For a 2x2 contingency table with a representing exposed cases, b representing unexposed cases, c representing
Estimation and inference typically proceed through the standard error of lnOR, which for a 2x2 table is
lnOR also arises in logistic regression, where the regression coefficient for a binary predictor equals the