Table 3 The analogy between diagnostic tests and clinical trials.

Absence of disease

Truth of null hypothesis

Presence of disease

Falsity of null hypothesis

Cutoff between positive and negative results

Significance level, α

Test result

P-value

Negative result

P-value > α

Positive result

P-value < α

Sensitivity

Power

False positive rate (1-specificity)

Significance level, α

Prior probability of disease

Prior probability of a difference between groups

Posterior probability of disease, given test result

Posterior probability of a difference between groups, given study results