A certain test has a specificity of 90%. What does this tell us about the false positive rate?
Understand the Problem
The question is asking about the relationship between specificity and the false positive rate in a test. Specificity is the ability of a test to correctly identify those without the disease (true negatives). The false positive rate is the proportion of people who test positive but do not have the disease. The question requires understanding that specificity and the false positive rate are inversely related.
Answer
A specificity of 90% indicates a false positive rate of 10%.
A specificity of 90% means that the test correctly identifies 90% of people who do not have the disease. Therefore, the false positive rate is 10%.
Answer for screen readers
A specificity of 90% means that the test correctly identifies 90% of people who do not have the disease. Therefore, the false positive rate is 10%.
More Information
Specificity measures the ability of a test to correctly identify those without the disease. It is calculated as: Specificity = True Negatives / (True Negatives + False Positives).
Tips
A common mistake is confusing specificity with sensitivity. Specificity relates to the false positive rate, while sensitivity relates to the false negative rate.
Sources
- Statistics | Sensitivity, Specificity, PPV and NPV | Geeky Medics - geekymedics.com
- Making sense of COVID-19 tests and terminology | Queen's Gazette - queensu.ca
- COVID-19: accurate interpretation of diagnostic tests—a statistical ... - pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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