Evaluating Screening Tests

Screening tests are often used in clinical practice to assess the likelihood that a person has a particular medical condition. The rationale is that, if disease is identified early (i.e., before the manifestation of symptoms), then earlier treatment may lead to cure or improved survival or quality of life.  Screening is an essential element of public health prevention – specifically secondary prevention (detecting disease early). 

After completing this course, learners will be able to:

• Compute and interpret the sensitivity and specificity of a screening test
• Compute and interpret the false positive and false negative fractions of a screening test
• Compute and interpret the positive predictive value and negative predictive value of a screening test
• Apply Bayes Theorem to compute performance characteristics of screening tests

Developed by: Lisa Sullivan, PhD; Wayne LaMorte, MD, PhD, MPH