Simplifying likelihood ratios
Open accessAbstract
Likelihood ratios are one of the best measures of diagnostic accuracy, although they are seldom used, because interpreting them requires a calculator to convert back and forth between "probability" and "odds" of disease. This article describes a simpler method of interpreting likelihood ratios, one that avoids calculators, nomograms, and conversions to "odds" of disease. Several examples illustrate how the clinician can use this method to refine diagnostic decisions at the bedside.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 9 · Cited by 894
- Authors
- McGee, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- McGee, Steven
- Venue
- Journal of General Internal Medicine
- Published
- 2002-08
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 647-650
- ISSN
- 0884-8734 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-1497
- PMC
- PMC1495095
- OpenAlex
- W2017460912
- Cited by
- 894
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 67 · 2021: 91 · 2020: 107 · 2019: 75 · 2018: 68 · 2017: 60 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 38 · 2013: 35 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 3.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of General Internal Medicine (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods in Epidemiology
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Keywords
- likelihood ratios, diagnostic accuracy, disease probability, odds, clinical decision-making, bedside diagnosis, diagnostic test interpretation
- MeSH terms
- Diagnosis, Epidemiologic Methods, Likelihood Functions
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
