In a standard diagnostic 2x2 table, what do the terms True Positives and False Positives refer to?

• A. True Positives and False Positives
• B. True Negatives and False Negatives
• C. False Positives and False Negatives
• D. True Positives and True Negatives

Answer: (A)

In a diagnostic test’s confusion matrix, True Positives and False Positives refer to the positive test results. True Positives are people who actually have the disease and test positive. False Positives are people who do not have the disease but still test positive. The other two cells describe negative test results: True Negatives are without the disease and test negative, while False Negatives are with the disease but test negative. So the pair that matches the description of positive test results is True Positives and False Positives.