Q: What is disease prevalence?
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A: The percentage of a population with the disease.
Q: How does prevalence affect sensitivity and specificity?
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A: Sensitivity and specificity are unaffected by disease prevalence. Keep in mind that this assertion is not universally accepted.
Q: How will increasing disease prevalence affect negative predictive value?
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A: As prevalence increases, the negative predictive value decreases. For example, if disease prevalence reaches 100%, any negative test result will be a false negative. That means that the negative predictive value is 0%.
Q: How will decreasing disease prevalence affect negative predictive value?
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A: As prevalence decreases, the negative predictive value increases. For example, if disease prevalence reaches 0%, any negative test result will be a true negative. That means that the negative predictive value is 100%.
Q: How will increasing disease prevalence affect positive predictive value?
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A: As prevalence increases, the positive predictive value increases. For example, if disease prevalence reaches 100%, any positive test result will be a true positive. That means that the positive predictive value is 100%.
Q: How will decreasing disease prevalence affect positive predictive value?
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A: As prevalence decreases, the positive predictive value decreases. For example, if disease prevalence reaches 0%, any positive test result will be a false positive. That means that the positive predictive value is 0%.