Screening Tests

Screening tests are tools that aid in the early detection of a particular disease. Frequently used in public health, they include Pap smears and mammograms, to name a couple. Screening tests have a set of qualities that can be understood and assessed mathematically, and epidemiological principles can be utilized to determine which are more helpful for detecting a particular illness.

In this course, the student will be introduced to the most important concepts of screening tests, including sensitivity and specificity, false positives and negatives, positive and negative predictive values, and likelihood ratios. Throughout the course, a contingency table will be used to explain each concept.

For optimal understanding, the student is required to be familiar with the basics of arithmetic, algebra, and epidemiology. Since some concepts may be very abstract to some, it’s encouraged to rewatch some video lectures until the concepts are fully grasped.