Abstract
A number of criteria have been postulated that a screening test should fulfill in order for it to be a good or worthwhile screening tool. However, it is a rare test which fulfills all the criteria that have been thought to be important. Therefore, there always exists some form of trade-off between, for example, the detection rate and the false-positive rate and cost. It is the magnitude and form of these trade-offs, which differ for each screening test, that are important, not whether a test fulfills some arbitrary set of criteria. In this paper, we describe some of the trade-offs which occur when appraising a screening test and we argue that listing arbitrary criteria is an unhelpful activity.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 649-652 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | QJM Monthly Journal of the Association of Physicians |
| Volume | 90 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 1997 |