What does specificity measure?

What does specificity measure?

• A. True negative
• B. True positive
• C. False negative
• D. False positive

Answer: (A)

Specificity measures how well a test correctly identifies people who do not have the condition. It is the proportion of true negatives among all disease-free individuals, calculated as TN / (TN + FP). A high specificity means few false positives, so a negative result in someone without the disease is trustworthy. This is distinct from sensitivity, which looks at how many people with the disease are correctly identified as positive (true positives). So specificity is about the true negative rate.

Specificity measures how well a test correctly identifies people who do not have the condition. It is the proportion of true negatives among all disease-free individuals, calculated as TN / (TN + FP). A high specificity means few false positives, so a negative result in someone without the disease is trustworthy. This is distinct from sensitivity, which looks at how many people with the disease are correctly identified as positive (true positives). So specificity is about the true negative rate.