True-Negative Rate

The ability of a test to identify correctly people without the condition. A test with a high true-negative rate will rarely be wrong about who does NOT have the condition (the test has a low rate of false-positive results). The true-negative rate is also known as specificity .

For example, researchers looked at 10 studies that evaluated the specificity of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) for diagnosing cancer in people who had suspicious breast lumps. Out of every 100 people whose breast lumps were eventually found not to cancerous, 72 had negative MRI tests. In these studies, the true-negative rate of MRI was 72 percent.

Related Terms

Diagnostic Test

A procedure to provide information about a person's condition that helps health care providers to make a diagnosis. Diagnostic tests provide information about whether a person does or does not have a particular disease. Read more.

Negative Predictive Value

Indicates the likelihood that people with a negative test result would not have a condition. The higher the value of the negative predictive value (for example, 99 percent would usually be considered a high value), the more useful the test is for predicting that people do not have the condition. Read more.

Validity

Whether a test or technique actually measures what it is intended to measure. Validity can refer to an individual measurement or to the design and approach taken in a clinical research study. When referring to a single measurement, validity means the accuracy of the measurement. Read more.