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ESTIMATING PREVALENCE FROM THE RESULTS OF A SCREENING TEST
997
Citations
0
References
1978
Year
Basis PropertiesPreventive MedicineMinimal CriteriaEstimating PrevalenceCancer ScreeningHealth ScreeningMedicineDiagnostic CriterionDiagnosisDiagnostic TestCarrier ScreeningPrevalenceScreeningPublic HealthSurvey MethodologyStatisticsPositive TestsEpidemiology
Screening tests aim to distinguish individuals with disease from those without. The study examines the minimal criteria required for a process to qualify as a screening test. The authors evaluate various methods for assessing the quality of a screening test. They demonstrate that the proportion of positive results poorly estimates disease prevalence and provide the necessary adjustments.
This paper deals with some basis properties of screening tests. Such tests purport to separate people with disease from people without. Minimal criteria for such a process to be a test are discussed. Various ways of judging the goodness of a test are examined. A common use of tests is to estimate prevalence of disease; frequency of positive tests is shown to be a bad estimate, and the necessary adjustmants are given.