The association of sensitivity and specificity with disease prevalence: analysis of 6909 studies of diagnostic test accuracy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sensitivity and specificity are characteristics of a diagnostic test and are not expected to change as the prevalence of the target condition changes. We sought to evaluate the association between prevalence and changes in sensitivity and specificity.

Methods

We retrieved data from meta-analyses of diagnostic test accuracy published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2003-2020). We used mixed-effects random-intercept linear regression models to evaluate the association between prevalence and logit-transformed sensitivity and specificity. The model evaluated all meta-analyses as nested within each systematic review.

Results

We analyzed 6909 diagnostic test accuracy studies from 552 meta-analyses that were included in 92 systematic reviews. For s

SUBMITTER: Murad MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10356012 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature