False Negative

A false negative is a term used to describe the proportion of negatives in a group that were assessed incorrectly as negative when the patient was actually positive. Although most tests/assessments result in either a positive or negative, the accuracy of a test is dependent on the number of positives and negatives that are correct. Therefore, when the accuracy of a test is determined, there are 4 possible results, because a positive or negative result could be right (true) or wrong (false).