What does a high specificity test rule out?

A high specificity test is designed to accurately identify individuals who do not have a particular condition, meaning it is effective in ruling out the presence of that condition. When a test has high specificity, it is more likely to yield negative results for those who are truly healthy, thus reducing the occurrence of false positives. This indicates that when the test gives a positive result, it can be trusted to correctly identify the presence of the disease, while negative results accurately confirm the absence of it.

In contrast, other concepts such as true negatives refer to correctly identifying healthy individuals, while ambiguous results would imply uncertainty in conclusions. High sensitivity cases are concerned with the ability of a test to correctly identify those with the disease. However, the key characteristic of high specificity is its ability to minimize false positives, solidifying the trustworthiness of negative results in ruling out disease.