Foundations and Adult Health Nursing Test Bank Related

Review Foundations and Adult Health Nursing Test Bank related questions and content

The ability of a screening test to distinguish correctly between persons with and without a disease is knows as _________.

  • A. Reliability
  • B. Validity
  • C. Sensitivity
  • D. Specificity
Correct Answer: B

Rationale: Validity refers to the extent to which a test accurately measures what it is intended to measure. In the context of screening tests for diseases, validity is crucial in assessing whether the test can correctly distinguish between individuals who have the disease (true positives) and those who do not have the disease (true negatives). This includes the ability to minimize false positives (incorrectly identifying someone as having the disease) and false negatives (incorrectly identifying someone as not having the disease). Therefore, when assessing the ability of a screening test to distinguish correctly between persons with and without a disease, we are essentially evaluating its validity.