The Chi² test

Modified on Mon, 30 Aug, 2021 at 8:49 AM

Definition


The Chi² test is used to compare two proportions from two or more groups. It helps to conclude if there seems to be an association between two factors or two diseases or a factor and a disease. A contingency table is used to run the test and it has to get at least a value > 5 in each case. 


In practice


This test could be used if you want to test if the repartition of your patients between modalities of a variable. For example, if you want to know if there is an association between the variable tobacco having three modalities "smoker", "no smoker" and "former smoker" and the variable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), this contingency table will be made :


Tobacco / COPDCOPD positiveCOPD negative
Smoker5010
No smoker550
Former smoker105


From this example (virtual data), you will obtain a p-value from the Chi² test : p < 0.0001. Thus you should conclude that the variable tobacco should be associated with the variable COPD in the target population.


How to use it on EasyMedStat?


  1. Go to Statistics > Test variables
  2. Select a first variable which could be of types Yes-no or List 
  3. Select a second variable which could be of types Yes-no or List 
  4. Click on "Find a statistical association between ..."


If some of the proportions in the cases of the contingency table are lower than 5, the Fisher's test will be applied to replace the Chi² test.


See also


Was this article helpful?

That’s Great!

Thank you for your feedback

Sorry! We couldn't be helpful

Thank you for your feedback

Let us know how can we improve this article!

Select at least one of the reasons
CAPTCHA verification is required.

Feedback sent

We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article