sensitivity
Meaning of sensitivity: A highly sensitive test produces few false negatives, but sensitivity alone does not describe how often a positive result is truly accurate.
Definition of sensitivity
Sensitivity, in the context of a medical test, describes the proportion of people who have a particular condition who correctly test positive for it. A test with high sensitivity identifies most people who genuinely have the condition, producing relatively few false negative results, meaning cases in which the disease is actually present but the test result is negative.
Sensitivity is generally considered alongside specificity, a related measure describing how well a test correctly identifies people who do not have the condition. A test can have high sensitivity but lower specificity, or the reverse, and the two measures together, rather than either alone, describe a test's overall accuracy.
Because no test achieves perfect sensitivity, a negative result on a highly sensitive test makes the condition considerably less likely but does not rule it out entirely, a distinction relevant when a screening test is interpreted alongside a person's overall clinical picture.
Used in a sentence
The screening test's high sensitivity meant a negative result was reassuring, though further evaluation was still considered.
Good to know
A test's sensitivity describes performance among people who truly have the condition, distinct from specificity, which describes performance among people who do not, and the two are easily conflated.