If a test has high specificity, what does this imply about false positives?

• A. There are many false positives.
• B. There are few false positives.
• C. There are few false negatives.
• D. It guarantees overall accuracy.

Answer: (B)

High specificity means the test correctly identifies those without the condition, so there are very few false positives. Specificity is computed as true negatives divided by the sum of true negatives and false positives, so a high value indicates the false positives are minimal. This makes the test reliable for ruling out disease in healthy individuals. Note that false negatives relate to sensitivity, not specificity, and overall accuracy depends on both sensitivity and specificity as well as how common the condition is in the tested population.