Specificity describes the ability of a test to correctly identify those without the disease.

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Specificity is about correctly identifying people who do not have the disease. Those without the disease who test negative are the true negatives, which is why this concept reflects the test’s ability to correctly rule out disease. A high specificity means few false positives. In other terms, a true positive would be someone with the disease who tests positive; a false positive is someone without the disease who tests positive; a false negative is someone with the disease who tests negative.