Estimating disease rates from a diagnostic test

Incidence and remission rates are often estimated from studies that employ a diagnostic test to indicate the presence of disease. The apparent rates that result from a simple study design with one test given at two time points will be substantially different from the true rates, even if the error ra...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of epidemiology Vol. 119; no. 6; p. 1015
Main Authors Yanagawa, T, Gladen, B C
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.06.1984
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Child
Child, Preschool
Diagnosis
Epidemiologic Methods
Female
Guatemala
Humans
Infant
Male
Middle Aged
Onchocerciasis - diagnosis
Onchocerciasis - epidemiology
Population Surveillance
Statistics as Topic - methods
Guatemala
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:Incidence and remission rates are often estimated from studies that employ a diagnostic test to indicate the presence of disease. The apparent rates that result from a simple study design with one test given at two time points will be substantially different from the true rates, even if the error rates of the test are low. Estimation of the true rates requires extra assumptions or extended designs with more tests or more time points. The authors illustrate their points with the use of two examples, the second of which compares the estimates obtained to actual data from a study of onchocerciasis (river blindness) in Guatemala.
ISSN:0002-9262
DOI:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a113806