Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Mar 30;28(7):1159-75.
doi: 10.1002/sim.3531.

Recommended tests for association in 2 x 2 tables

Affiliations

Recommended tests for association in 2 x 2 tables

Stian Lydersen et al. Stat Med. .

Abstract

The asymptotic Pearson's chi-squared test and Fisher's exact test have long been the most used for testing association in 2x2 tables. Unconditional tests preserve the significance level and generally are more powerful than Fisher's exact test for moderate to small samples, but previously were disadvantaged by being computationally demanding. This disadvantage is now moot, as software to facilitate unconditional tests has been available for years. Moreover, Fisher's exact test with mid-p adjustment gives about the same results as an unconditional test. Consequently, several better tests are available, and the choice of a test should depend only on its merits for the application involved. Unconditional tests and the mid-p approach ought to be used more than they now are. The traditional Fisher's exact test should practically never be used.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Similar articles

Cited by

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources