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by dragonwriter 3219 days ago
> 1/10 false positives doesn't sound too bad to me.

If the 15-year risk for the population taking the test is 10%, an unbiased 10% error rate would mean:

81% true negatives, 9% false positives, 9% true positives, 1% true negatives.

> Even with a false positive, the changes you would make (lifestyle changes, brain stimulation, continuous monitoring) would only be beneficial

Not if prioritizing them crowded out things you could be doing to address a real risk that is deprioritized because of the false result.

And, also, of course, an error rate doesn't have to be unbiased. With the same population, a test with these results would also be 90% accurate:

90% true negatives, 10% false negatives.