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