. 2020 Sep 26;109(6):1489–1498. doi: 10.1002/cpt.2004

Table 2.

The analogy of diagnostic testing (bold font) and NHST (italicized font)

	Unknown characteristic/truth Hypothesis
Diagnostic Statistical Test Result	Positive (A) Significant	Sensitivity Power – true positive	Type 1 error (α)	PPV
Negative Not significant	Type 2 error (β)	Specificity True negative	NPV

Unknown characteristic/truth

Hypothesis

Present (B^C)

Alternative (H _a )

Absent (B)

Null (H ₀ )

Diagnostic

Statistical

Test

Result

Positive (A)

Significant

Sensitivity

Power – true positive

Type 1 error (α)

PPV

Negative

Not significant

Type 2 error (β)

Specificity

True negative

NPV

NHST, null hypothesis significance testing; NPV, negative predictive value; PPV, positive predictive value.