Sensitivity

The proportion of true cases that an assessment correctly identifies — also called the true positive rate.

Sensitivity is the proportion of true cases that an assessment correctly identifies. If a depression screener has 85% sensitivity, it flags 85% of people who actually have depression as positive — and misses 15% as false negatives.

Sensitivity is the workhorse statistic for screening tools, where missing real cases is costly. It's always reported alongside specificity (the proportion of true non-cases correctly identified). The two depend on the cutoff score chosen: lowering the cutoff usually raises sensitivity at the expense of specificity, and vice versa.

Specificity — The proportion of true non-cases that an assessment correctly identifies as negative — also called the true negative rate.
Cutoff score — A specific value on an assessment used to classify respondents into categories. Not a diagnosis.
Screening — Using a brief assessment to identify people who may benefit from further evaluation — not to diagnose.

Sensitivity

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