A screening test with 99% sensitivity and 99% specificity is applied to a population with disease prevalence of 0.1%. Which statement is most accurate?

• A The positive predictive value will be greater than 90%
• B The false-positive rate will be very low
• C Most positive tests are true positives
• D The negative predictive value will be close to 100% ✓

Explanation

With very low prevalence, even a highly specific test yields a low positive predictive value, so most positives are false positives. However, the negative predictive value approaches 100% because the disease is rare and the test is excellent at ruling it out.

Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 26th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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