Question

In the context of diagnostic testing, which of the following best defines specificity?

1) The ability of a test to correctly identify individuals who do not have the condition
2) The ability of a test to correctly identify individuals who have the condition
3) The proportion of true positive results among all individuals who have the condition
4) The proportion of true negative results among all individuals who do not have the condition

Answer 1

Specificity in diagnostic testing is the ability of a test to correctly identify individuals who do not have the disease, ensuring few false positives.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the context of diagnostic testing, specificity refers to the probability that a diagnostic test will not find evidence of the targeted disease when the pathogen is absent. Therefore, the correct answer to this question would be: 1) The ability of a test to correctly identify individuals who do not have the condition. This means that if a test has high specificity, it is highly likely to produce true negative results for those who are not afflicted by the condition, thus reducing the chance of false positives.