DAVAO DOCTORS COLLEGE
MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
STUDENT NOTES: Biostatistics and Epidemiology
CHI-SQUARE DISTRIBUTION TEST
 A test that is used to measure the differences between what
is observed and what is expected according to an assumed
hypothesis
 a non-parametric test based on frequencies
 The test is used for testing the hypothesis and is not useful
for estimation
 This test is an important non-parametric test as no rigid
assumptions are necessary in regard to the type of
population, no need of parameter values, and relatively
less mathematical details are involve
 Application of Chi-Square Test:
o Goodness of Fit distribution
o Test of Independence
o Test of Homogeneity
I. Goodness of Fit distribution
 This test enables us to see how well does the assumed
theoretical distribution fit to the observed data.
 Assumptions:
o The data are obtained from a random sample.
o The expected frequency for each category
must be 5 or more
o Note: This test is a right-tailed test, since
when the O - E values are squared, the
answer will be positive or zero.
II. Test of Independence
 Is used to test the independence of two variables
 For example, suppose a new postoperative procedure is
administered to a number of patients in a large hospital.
 The researcher can ask the question, Do the doctors
feel differently about this procedure from the nurses, or
do they feel basically the same way?
 Note that the question is not whether they prefer the
procedure but whether there is a difference of opinion
between the two groups
III. Test of Homogeneity
 Samples are selected from several different
populations, and the researcher is interested in
determining whether the proportions of elements that
have a common characteristic are the same for each
population.
NONPARAMETRIC TEST
 Does not assume anything about the underlying
distribution
 It is used when the data is not normal
 Other reasons to run nonparametric tests:
o One or more assumptions of a parametric test have
been violated
o Your sample size is too small to run a parametric
test
o Your data has outliers that cannot be removed
o You want to test for the median rather than the
mean
 DATA TYPES:
o Rule of Thumb:
 Parametric test – interval or ratio scales
 Non parametric test – nomina or ordinal
scales
o Main Nonparametric test:
 1-sample sign test – use this test to
estimate the median of a population and
compare it to a reference value or target
value
 1-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test –
the test assumes that the data comes
from a symmetric distribution
 Friedman test – used to test for
differences between groups with ordinal
dependent variables. It can also be used
for continuous data if the one-way
ANOVA with repeated measures is
inappropriate
 Goodman Kruska’s Gamma – a test of
association for ranked variables
 Kruskal-Wallis Test – use this test
instead of a one-way ANOVA to find out
if two or more medians are different.
Ranks of the data points are used for
calculations, rather than the data oints
themselves.
 Mann-Kendall Trend Test – looks for
trends in time-series data
 Mann-Whitney Test – use this test to
compare differences between two
independent groups when dependent
variables are either ordinal or continuous
 Mood’s Median Test – use this test
instead of sign test when you have two
independent samples
 Spearman Rank Correlation – use
when you want to find a correlation
between two sets of data
REFERENCES:
 Bluman, A. G. (2012). Elementary statistics: a step by step
approach (8th ed.). 1221 Avenue of the Americas,New York,
NY 10020: McGraw-Hill Companies
 Daniel, W. W. (2005). Biostatistics: A foundation for analysis
in the health sciences (8th ed.). Philippines: Mindmover
Publishing. doi:570.15195/D221
 Nuevo, J. M. (2019). Biostatistics and epidemiology.
Powerpoint presentation.