What Does the Area Under the Curve (AUC) Represent?
The AUC is a single scalar value summarizing the performance of the test across all thresholds. An AUC of 0.5 indicates no discriminatory power (equivalent to random guessing), while an AUC of 1.0 represents perfect discrimination. In epidemiological studies, an AUC closer to 1.0 is desirable, indicating a high level of accuracy.
