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Since the new test has a very high sensitivity, that translates to that if the test is negative then there is a high likelihood that you can rule out falls risk. This means there should not be very many false negatives. There could be a lot of false positives however with a specificity of 25%; in other words, when the test is positive you can’t feel confident to rule in falls risk.
Here are a couple threads from our PCS Advantage forums that discuss sensitivity and specificity a little further that might be helpful:
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Hi! I am going to take a shot at this because I have been having a hard time as well. Spin rule it in (specificity), this is the true negative- so if someone is negative on a test they are less likely not to have the condition. Snout rule it out (sensitivity), this is the true positive- so if someone is positive on a test they are more likely to have the condition. I hope this helps!
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I also struggled with this topic and found a video about this that helped me remember it. They talked about Sensitivity by relating it to “The Sensitive Scanner” aka the TSA scanners at airports that beep for a lot of people who don’t actually have weapons on them. So there are a lot of false positives. But if someone DOES have a weapon, it will always beep (true positive). So in that way, a test with high sensitivity is a great way to rule something OUT because there is very little chance someone who has the condition (a weapon in this case) would get a false negative.
High sensitivity = very few false negatives! Every time I see sensitivity I just picture the Sensitive Scanner as my visual.
I also think about pregnancy tests that advertise being “highly sensitive”. If you are pregnant, it would be basically impossible to NOT test positive. So it’s a good way to rule it out.
Hope that helps!
Kelsey -
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