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Biases in the assessment of diagnostic tests
Author(s) -
Begg Colin B.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/sim.4780060402
Subject(s) - arbitrariness , diagnostic test , computer science , variety (cybernetics) , sensitivity (control systems) , test (biology) , simple (philosophy) , machine learning , econometrics , artificial intelligence , medicine , mathematics , epistemology , biology , emergency medicine , paleontology , philosophy , electronic engineering , engineering
Diagnostic tests are traditionally characterized by simple measures of efficacy such as the sensitivity and the specificity. These measures, though widely recognized and easy to understand, are subject to definitional arbitrariness. Moreover, studies constructed to estimate the sensitivity and specificity are susceptible to a variety of biases. In this paper the various potential problems are described with reference to examples from the diagnostic literature. These difficulties have implications for the design of diagnostic test evaluations, and the choice of suitable measures of test efficacy.