Prevalence of abnormalities influences cytologists' error rates in screening for cervical cancer

Karla K. Evans, Rosemary H. Tambouret, Andrew Evered, David C. Wilbur, Jeremy M. Wolfe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Medical screening tasks are often difficult, visual searches with low target prevalence (low rates of disease). Under laboratory conditions, when targets are rare, nonexpert searchers show decreases in false-positive results and increases in false-negative results compared with results when targets are common. This prevalence effect is not due to vigilance failures or target unfamiliarity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1557-1560
Number of pages4
JournalArchives of pathology & laboratory medicine
Volume135
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2011

Keywords

  • Boston
  • False Negative Reactions
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Mass Screening
  • Prevalence
  • Uterine Cervical Neoplasms
  • Vaginal Smears
  • Wales

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