Example: Barking madness - Part 2

Method 1: Let’s design a contingency table to illustrate the situation among 1000 people.

 

  Disease +
Disease - Total
Blood test + 1
20
21
Blood test - 0
979
979
Total 1
999
1000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • The disease prevalence is 0.1%, so among 1000 people, 1 is infected.
  • 99 of 100 affected people are detected by the test, so the test sensitivity is 99%. Thus, the number of true positive is 1*0.99 ˜ 1
  • 98 of 100 non-infected people are correctly classified as healthy, so the test specificity is 98%. Thus, the number of true negative is 999 * 0.98 ˜ 979
  • Consequently, the number of false positive is 999-979=20
  • Finally, the test positive predictive values is PPV = P (Barking madness+ | Blood test+) = 1 / 21 ˜ 4.7%

Conclusion
There is only a 4.7% probability that the positive test comes from a truly infected individual, and a bigger than 95% probability that it is a false-positive result.

iDevice icon Method 2 - For experts:
Predictive values can also be calculated using sensitivity, specificity and true prevalence.