Evidence-appraisal glossary
Net Benefit
Net benefit is a single number that puts the value of finding true cases and the cost of false alarms on the same scale, so you can judge whether acting on a test or model does more good than harm at a chosen risk threshold.
It counts true positives and subtracts false positives weighted by the odds of the threshold probability at which you would choose to act, so the threshold encodes how many false alarms you will accept to catch one real case. Net benefit is the quantity plotted in decision curve analysis, and it lets you compare a model against the simple strategies of treating everyone or treating no one. Unlike accuracy measures, it answers whether using the model actually improves decisions.
This is a plain-language methodology definition for reading research. It is general education, not medical advice.