The evaluation of clinical tests involves several key metrics:
- Sensitivity: The ability of a test to correctly identify those with the disease (true positive rate). High sensitivity is crucial for screening tests. - Specificity: The ability of a test to correctly identify those without the disease (true negative rate). High specificity is important to avoid false positives. - Positive Predictive Value (PPV): The probability that individuals with a positive test result actually have the disease. - Negative Predictive Value (NPV): The probability that individuals with a negative test result are truly disease-free. - Likelihood Ratios: These combine sensitivity and specificity to indicate how much a test result will change the odds of having a disease.
