Abstract

Directly relating to sensitivity and specificity and providing an optimal cut-point, which maximizes overall classification effectiveness for diagnosis purpose, the Youden index has been frequently utilized in biomedical diagnosis practice. Current application of the Youden index is limited to two diagnostic groups. However, there usually exists a transitional intermediate stage in many disease processes. Early recognition of this intermediate stage is vital to open an optimal window for therapeutic intervention. In this article, we extend the Youden index to assess diagnostic accuracy when there are three ordinal diagnostic groups. Parametric and nonparametric methods are presented to estimate the optimal Youden index, the underlying optimal cut-points, and the associated confidence intervals. Extensive simulation studies covering representative distributional assumptions are reported to compare performance of the proposed methods. A real example illustrates the usefulness of the Youden index in evaluating discriminating ability of diagnostic tests.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1213-1234
Number of pages22
JournalCommunications in Statistics: Simulation and Computation
Volume42
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2013

Keywords

  • Bandwidth selection
  • Diagnostic test
  • Kernel smoothing
  • Optimal cut-point
  • Youden index

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Youden index and associated cut-points for three ordinal diagnostic groups'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this