The proportion with the lowest false negative rate will have the highest which measure?

The proportion with the lowest false negative rate will have the highest which measure?

• A. Specificity
• B. NPV
• C. PPV
• D. Sensitivity

Answer: (D)

Lower false negative rate means the test misses fewer people who actually have the disease. Sensitivity captures exactly that idea: it is the proportion of true diseased individuals correctly identified, calculated as TP ÷ (TP + FN). The false negative rate is the complement of sensitivity, FN ÷ (TP + FN) = 1 − sensitivity. So when the false negative rate is lowest, sensitivity is highest. Other metrics don’t track this directly—specificity relates to non-diseased, and predictive values depend on disease prevalence. Therefore the highest measure in this scenario is sensitivity.

Lower false negative rate means the test misses fewer people who actually have the disease. Sensitivity captures exactly that idea: it is the proportion of true diseased individuals correctly identified, calculated as TP ÷ (TP + FN). The false negative rate is the complement of sensitivity, FN ÷ (TP + FN) = 1 − sensitivity. So when the false negative rate is lowest, sensitivity is highest. Other metrics don’t track this directly—specificity relates to non-diseased, and predictive values depend on disease prevalence. Therefore the highest measure in this scenario is sensitivity.