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A limitation of the diagnostic-odds ratio in determining an optimal cut-off value for a continuous diagnostic test

A limitation of the diagnostic-odds ratio in determining an optimal cut-off value for a continuous diagnostic test
A limitation of the diagnostic-odds ratio in determining an optimal cut-off value for a continuous diagnostic test
The article considers the diagnostic odds ratio, a special summarising function of specificity and sensitivity for a given diagnostic test, which has been suggested as a measure of diagnostic discriminatory power. In the situation of a continuous diagnostic test a cut-off value has to be chosen and it is a common practice to choose the cut-off value on the basis of the maximised diagnostic odds ratio. We show that this strategy is not to be recommended since it might easily lead to cut-off values on the boundary of the parameter range. This is illustrated by means of some examples. The source of the deficient behaviour of the diagnostic odds ratio lies in the convexity of the log-diagnostic odds ratio as a function of the cut-off value. This can easily be seen in practice by plotting a non-parametric estimate of the log-DOR against the cut-off value. In fact, it is shown for the case of a normal distributed diseased and a normal distributed non-diseased population with equal variances that the log-DOR is a convex function of the cut-off value. It is also shown that these problems are not present for the Youden index, which appears to be a better choice
0962-2802
541-550
Böhning, Dankmar
1df635d4-e3dc-44d0-b61d-5fd11f6434e1
Holling, Heinz
88d46f56-77ca-4d0e-b035-a51aff735435
Patilea, Valentin
a96956f4-78aa-4d4e-b369-3bd5c5ce7140
Böhning, Dankmar
1df635d4-e3dc-44d0-b61d-5fd11f6434e1
Holling, Heinz
88d46f56-77ca-4d0e-b035-a51aff735435
Patilea, Valentin
a96956f4-78aa-4d4e-b369-3bd5c5ce7140

Böhning, Dankmar, Holling, Heinz and Patilea, Valentin (2011) A limitation of the diagnostic-odds ratio in determining an optimal cut-off value for a continuous diagnostic test. Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 20 (5), 541-550. (doi:10.1177/0962280210374532).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The article considers the diagnostic odds ratio, a special summarising function of specificity and sensitivity for a given diagnostic test, which has been suggested as a measure of diagnostic discriminatory power. In the situation of a continuous diagnostic test a cut-off value has to be chosen and it is a common practice to choose the cut-off value on the basis of the maximised diagnostic odds ratio. We show that this strategy is not to be recommended since it might easily lead to cut-off values on the boundary of the parameter range. This is illustrated by means of some examples. The source of the deficient behaviour of the diagnostic odds ratio lies in the convexity of the log-diagnostic odds ratio as a function of the cut-off value. This can easily be seen in practice by plotting a non-parametric estimate of the log-DOR against the cut-off value. In fact, it is shown for the case of a normal distributed diseased and a normal distributed non-diseased population with equal variances that the log-DOR is a convex function of the cut-off value. It is also shown that these problems are not present for the Youden index, which appears to be a better choice

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e-pub ahead of print date: 16 July 2011
Published date: October 2011
Organisations: Statistics, Statistical Sciences Research Institute

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 210465
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/210465
ISSN: 0962-2802
PURE UUID: 23974f53-974b-4447-8311-9d25da83072a
ORCID for Dankmar Böhning: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0638-7106

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Date deposited: 09 Feb 2012 11:34
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:39

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Author: Heinz Holling
Author: Valentin Patilea

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