Screening and Diagnostic Test Validity Practice Questions
20 free Screening and Diagnostic Test Validity practice questions for the USMLE Step 1, each with the correct answer and a detailed explanation. Open any question below, or take the full set as an interactive quiz.
Questions
20 questions
All Screening and Diagnostic Test Validity questions
- Q1. A new screening test for colon cancer correctly identifies 95% of patients who truly have the disease. Which test characteristic does this describe?
- Q2. A diagnostic test has a specificity of 98%. What does this indicate about the test?
- Q3. A test for influenza shows many false positives. Which parameter is most likely low?
- Q4. A screening test for diabetes is used in a population where the disease prevalence is very low. Which parameter will be most affected?
- Q5. A test used for initial screening for HIV has very high sensitivity. Why is this desirable?
- Q6. A confirmatory test for HIV is chosen because it has very high specificity. What is the advantage of this?
- Q7. A new test has the following characteristics: sensitivity 70% and specificity 90%. What can be inferred?
- Q8. If the prevalence of a condition increases, how does this affect positive predictive value (PPV)?
- Q9. A researcher wants a test that rarely gives negative results to people who actually have the disorder. Which characteristic should be maximized?
- Q10. A study shows that a test has high NPV in a population. What is the most likely explanation?
- Q11. Which of the following changes will decrease the number of false positives?
- Q12. A physician wants to rule out pulmonary embolism using a D-dimer test. Which feature of the test makes it useful?
- Q13. A test correctly identifies 90 of 100 diseased patients and 70 of 100 non-diseased patients. What is the test’s accuracy?
- Q14. Which scenario best illustrates verification bias?
- Q15. A test yields the same result each time it is repeated, but the results differ from the true value. What is this scenario called?
- Q16. A clinician wants to minimize missing a case of meningitis in infants. Which type of test should be used first?
- Q17. In what situation would a test’s PPV increase even if sensitivity and specificity remain constant?
- Q18. A study evaluates a new test and finds that it overestimates disease in one demographic group but not others. What bias is this?
- Q19. A screening program detects many small, slow-growing tumors that would not have caused harm. Which bias does this represent?
- Q20. A test detects a disease earlier but does not change the time of death. What bias falsely inflates survival time?