Which term describes the ability of a diagnostic test to identify positive results?

The ability of a diagnostic test to identify positive results is referred to as sensitivity. Sensitivity specifically measures how effectively a test can correctly identify individuals who have a particular disease, meaning it reflects the proportion of true positives among all those who actually have the condition. A highly sensitive test will yield few false negatives, ensuring that most patients with the disease will receive a positive test result. This is crucial in screening settings where the goal is to catch as many cases as possible.

In contrast, other terms, such as specificity, accuracy, and predictive value, focus on different aspects of diagnostic testing. Specificity relates to the test's ability to correctly identify those without the disease (true negatives), accuracy encompasses both true positives and true negatives in relation to the total number of tests, and predictive value refers to how likely a positive test result is to indicate the presence of disease. Thus, sensitivity is the most appropriate term for describing a test's ability to identify positive results.