Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance

Okeh UM; Ogbonna LN

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13

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Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance

Okeh UM, Ogbonna LN

Published in American Journal of BioScience (Volume 1, Issue 4)

Received: 21 October 2013 Published: 20 November 2013

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Abstract

Diagnostic accuracy relates to the ability of a test to discriminate between the target condition and health. This discriminative potential can be quantified by the measures of diagnostic accuracy such as sensitivity and specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, error rates, the area under the ROC curve, Youden's index and diagnostic odds ratio. Different measures of diagnostic accuracy relate to the different aspects of diagnostic procedure: while some measures are used to assess the discriminative property of the test, others are used to assess its predictive ability. Measures of diagnostic accuracy are not fixed indicators of a test performance, some are very sensitive to the disease prevalence, while others to the spectrum and definition of the disease. Furthermore, measures of diagnostic accuracy are extremely sensitive to the design of the study. Studies not meeting strict methodological standards usually over- or under-estimate the indicators of test performance as well as they limit the applicability of the results of the study. STARD initiative was a very important step toward the improvement of the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy. STARD statement should be included into the Instructions to authors by scientific journals and authors should be encouraged to use the checklist whenever reporting their studies on diagnostic accuracy. Such efforts could make a substantial difference in the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy and serve to provide the best possible evidence to the best for the patient care. This brief review outlines some basic definitions, formulas and characteristics of the measures of diagnostic accuracy.

Published in	American Journal of BioScience (Volume 1, Issue 4)
DOI	10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13
Page(s)	63-73
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2013. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Diagnostic Accuracy, Sensitivity, Specificity, Likelihood Ratio, DOR, AUC, Predictive Values

References

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APA Style

Okeh UM, Ogbonna LN. (2013). Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance. American Journal of BioScience, 1(4), 63-73. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13

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ACS Style

Okeh UM; Ogbonna LN. Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance. Am. J. BioScience 2013, 1(4), 63-73. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13

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AMA Style

Okeh UM, Ogbonna LN. Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance. Am J BioScience. 2013;1(4):63-73. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13

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@article{10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13,
  author = {Okeh UM and Ogbonna LN},
  title = {Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance},
  journal = {American Journal of BioScience},
  volume = {1},
  number = {4},
  pages = {63-73},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajbio.20130104.13},
  abstract = {Diagnostic accuracy relates to the ability of a test to discriminate between the target condition and health. This discriminative potential can be quantified by the measures of diagnostic accuracy such as sensitivity and specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, error rates, the area under the ROC curve, Youden's index and diagnostic odds ratio. Different measures of diagnostic accuracy relate to the different aspects of diagnostic procedure: while some measures are used to assess the discriminative property of the test, others are used to assess its predictive ability. Measures of diagnostic accuracy are not fixed indicators of a test performance, some are very sensitive to the disease prevalence, while others to the spectrum and definition of the disease. Furthermore, measures of diagnostic accuracy are extremely sensitive to the design of the study. Studies not meeting strict methodological standards usually over- or under-estimate the indicators of test performance as well as they limit the applicability of the results of the study. STARD initiative was a very important step toward the improvement of the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy. STARD statement should be included into the Instructions to authors by scientific journals and authors should be encouraged to use the checklist whenever reporting their studies on diagnostic accuracy. Such efforts could make a substantial difference in the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy and serve to provide the best possible evidence to the best for the patient care. This brief review outlines some basic definitions, formulas and characteristics of the measures of diagnostic accuracy.},
 year = {2013}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance
AU  - Okeh UM
AU  - Ogbonna LN
Y1  - 2013/11/20
PY  - 2013
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13
T2  - American Journal of BioScience
JF  - American Journal of BioScience
JO  - American Journal of BioScience
SP  - 63
EP  - 73
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0167
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13
AB  - Diagnostic accuracy relates to the ability of a test to discriminate between the target condition and health. This discriminative potential can be quantified by the measures of diagnostic accuracy such as sensitivity and specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, error rates, the area under the ROC curve, Youden's index and diagnostic odds ratio. Different measures of diagnostic accuracy relate to the different aspects of diagnostic procedure: while some measures are used to assess the discriminative property of the test, others are used to assess its predictive ability. Measures of diagnostic accuracy are not fixed indicators of a test performance, some are very sensitive to the disease prevalence, while others to the spectrum and definition of the disease. Furthermore, measures of diagnostic accuracy are extremely sensitive to the design of the study. Studies not meeting strict methodological standards usually over- or under-estimate the indicators of test performance as well as they limit the applicability of the results of the study. STARD initiative was a very important step toward the improvement of the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy. STARD statement should be included into the Instructions to authors by scientific journals and authors should be encouraged to use the checklist whenever reporting their studies on diagnostic accuracy. Such efforts could make a substantial difference in the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy and serve to provide the best possible evidence to the best for the patient care. This brief review outlines some basic definitions, formulas and characteristics of the measures of diagnostic accuracy.
VL  - 1
IS  - 4
ER  -

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Author Information

Okeh UM

Department of Industrial Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria
Ogbonna LN

Department of Industrial Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Okeh UM, Ogbonna LN. (2013). Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance. American Journal of BioScience, 1(4), 63-73. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13

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ACS Style

Okeh UM; Ogbonna LN. Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance. Am. J. BioScience 2013, 1(4), 63-73. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13

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AMA Style

Okeh UM, Ogbonna LN. Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance. Am J BioScience. 2013;1(4):63-73. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13,
  author = {Okeh UM and Ogbonna LN},
  title = {Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance},
  journal = {American Journal of BioScience},
  volume = {1},
  number = {4},
  pages = {63-73},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajbio.20130104.13},
  abstract = {Diagnostic accuracy relates to the ability of a test to discriminate between the target condition and health. This discriminative potential can be quantified by the measures of diagnostic accuracy such as sensitivity and specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, error rates, the area under the ROC curve, Youden's index and diagnostic odds ratio. Different measures of diagnostic accuracy relate to the different aspects of diagnostic procedure: while some measures are used to assess the discriminative property of the test, others are used to assess its predictive ability. Measures of diagnostic accuracy are not fixed indicators of a test performance, some are very sensitive to the disease prevalence, while others to the spectrum and definition of the disease. Furthermore, measures of diagnostic accuracy are extremely sensitive to the design of the study. Studies not meeting strict methodological standards usually over- or under-estimate the indicators of test performance as well as they limit the applicability of the results of the study. STARD initiative was a very important step toward the improvement of the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy. STARD statement should be included into the Instructions to authors by scientific journals and authors should be encouraged to use the checklist whenever reporting their studies on diagnostic accuracy. Such efforts could make a substantial difference in the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy and serve to provide the best possible evidence to the best for the patient care. This brief review outlines some basic definitions, formulas and characteristics of the measures of diagnostic accuracy.},
 year = {2013}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Statistical Evaluation of Indicators of Diagnostic Test Performance
AU  - Okeh UM
AU  - Ogbonna LN
Y1  - 2013/11/20
PY  - 2013
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13
T2  - American Journal of BioScience
JF  - American Journal of BioScience
JO  - American Journal of BioScience
SP  - 63
EP  - 73
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0167
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20130104.13
AB  - Diagnostic accuracy relates to the ability of a test to discriminate between the target condition and health. This discriminative potential can be quantified by the measures of diagnostic accuracy such as sensitivity and specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, error rates, the area under the ROC curve, Youden's index and diagnostic odds ratio. Different measures of diagnostic accuracy relate to the different aspects of diagnostic procedure: while some measures are used to assess the discriminative property of the test, others are used to assess its predictive ability. Measures of diagnostic accuracy are not fixed indicators of a test performance, some are very sensitive to the disease prevalence, while others to the spectrum and definition of the disease. Furthermore, measures of diagnostic accuracy are extremely sensitive to the design of the study. Studies not meeting strict methodological standards usually over- or under-estimate the indicators of test performance as well as they limit the applicability of the results of the study. STARD initiative was a very important step toward the improvement of the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy. STARD statement should be included into the Instructions to authors by scientific journals and authors should be encouraged to use the checklist whenever reporting their studies on diagnostic accuracy. Such efforts could make a substantial difference in the quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy and serve to provide the best possible evidence to the best for the patient care. This brief review outlines some basic definitions, formulas and characteristics of the measures of diagnostic accuracy.
VL  - 1
IS  - 4
ER  -

Copy | Download