In medical testing, what does sensitivity indicate?

Sensitivity is a critical concept in medical testing that refers to the ability of a test to accurately identify individuals who have a particular condition. A test with high sensitivity will correctly detect a high proportion of true positive cases, meaning that it will identify most individuals who are actually affected by the disease. This is essential in clinical settings, as it ensures that those with the condition receive proper diagnosis and treatment.

In practice, if a screening test has a sensitivity of 90%, it means that 90% of those who truly have the condition will test positive, while 10% will be missed (false negatives). Thus, focusing on sensitivity is particularly important in situations where it is crucial to identify as many cases as possible, such as in screening programs for contagious diseases or serious health conditions where late diagnosis could lead to adverse outcomes.

The other options touch on different aspects of testing but do not define sensitivity. For instance, minimizing false positives pertains more to the test's specificity, while likelihood of a positive test in healthy individuals is not a measure of sensitivity. Effectiveness in predicting the course of the disease relates to prognostic tests rather than the diagnostic accuracy provided by sensitivity. Therefore, understanding sensitivity as the measure of correctly identifying individuals with the condition is essential in evaluating the