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Chi Square Statistics
The Chi Square Statistic
Types of Data:
There are basically two types of random variables and they yield two types of data: numerical and
categorical. A chi square (X2) statistic is used to investigate whether distributions of categorical
variables differ from one another. Basically categorical variable yield data in the categories and
numerical variables yield data in numerical form. Responses to such questions as "What is your
major?" or Do you own a car?" are categorical because they yield data such as "biology" or "no." In
contrast, responses to such questions as "How tall are you?" or "What is your G.P.A.?" are numerical.
Numerical data can be either discrete or continuous. The table below may help you see the differences
between these two variables.
Data Type
Question Type
Categorical
What is your sex?
Disrete- How many cars do you
own?
Continuous - How tall are you?
Numerical
Numerical
Possible
Responses
male or female
two or three
72 inches
Notice that discrete data arise fom a counting process, while continuous data arise from a measuring
process.
The Chi Square statistic compares the tallies or counts of categorical responses between two (or more)
independent groups. (note: Chi square tests can only be used on actual numbers and not on
percentages, proportions, means, etc.)
2 x 2 Contingency Table
There are several types of chi square tests depending on the way the data was collected and the
hypothesis being tested. We'll begin with the simplest case: a 2 x 2 contingency table. If we set the 2 x
2 table to the general notation shown below in Table 1, using the letters a, b, c, and d to denote the
contents of the cells, then we would have the following table:
Table 1. General notation for a 2 x 2 contingency table.
Variable 1
Variable 2
Category 1
Category 2
Total
Data type 1
a
c
a+c
Data type 2
b
d
b+d
Totals
a+b
c+d
a+b+c+d=N
For a 2 x 2 contingency table the Chi Square statistic is calculated by the formula:
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Chi Square Statistics
Note: notice that the four components of the denominator are the four totals from the table columns
and rows.
Suppose you conducted a drug trial on a group of animals and you hypothesized that the animals
receiving the drug would show increased heart rates compared to those that did not receive the drug.
You conduct the study and collect the following data:
Ho: The proportion of animals whose heart rate increased is independent of drug treatment.
Ha: The proportion of animals whose heart rate increased is associated with drug treatment.
Table 2. Hypothetical drug trial results.
Heart Rate
Increased
36
30
66
Treated
Not treated
Total
No Heart Rate
Total
Increase
14
50
25
55
39
105
Applying the formula above we get:
Chi square = 105[(36)(25) - (14)(30)]2 / (50)(55)(39)(66) = 3.418
Before we can proceed we eed to know how many degrees of freedom we have. When a comparison
is made between one sample and another, a simple rule is that the degrees of freedom equal (number
of columns minus one) x (number of rows minus one) not counting the totals for rows or columns. For
our data this gives (2-1) x (2-1) = 1.
We now have our chi square statistic (x2 = 3.418), our predetermined alpha level of significance
(0.05), and our degrees of freedom (df = 1). Entering the Chi square distribution table with 1 degree of
freedom and reading along the row we find our value of x2 (3.418) lies between 2.706 and 3.841. The
corresponding probability is between the 0.10 and 0.05 probability levels. That means that the p-value
is above 0.05 (it is actually 0.065). Since a p-value of 0.65 is greater than the conventionally accepted
significance level of 0.05 (i.e. p > 0.05) we fail to reject the null hypothesis. In other words, there is
no statistically significant difference in the proportion of animals whose heart rate increased.
What would happen if the number of control animals whose heart rate increased dropped to 29 instead
of 30 and, consequently, the number of controls whose hear rate did not increase changed from 25 to
26? Try it. Notice that the new x2 value is 4.125 and this value exceeds the table value of 3.841 (at 1
degree of freedom and an alpha level of 0.05). This means that p < 0.05 (it is now0.04) and we reject
the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative hypothesis - the heart rate of animals is different
between the treatment groups. When p < 0.05 we generally refer to this as a significant difference.
Table 3. Chi Square distribution table.
probability level (alpha)
Df
0.5
1
2
0.02
0.01
0.001
0.455 2.706 3.841
5.412
6.635
10.827
1.386 4.605 5.991
7.824
9.210
13.815
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0.10
0.05
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Chi Square Statistics
2.366 6.251 7.815
9.837
11.345 16.268
3.357 7.779 9.488
11.668 13.277 18.465
4.351 9.236 11.070 13.388 15.086 20.517
To make the chi square calculations a bit easier, plug your observed and expected values into the
following applet. Click on the cell and then enter the value. Click the compute button on the lower
right corner to see the chi square value printed in the lower left hand coner.
Chi Square Goodness of Fit (One Sample Test)
This test allows us to compae a collection of categorical data with some theoretical expected
distribution. This test is often used in genetics to compare the results of a cross with the theoretical
distribution based on genetic theory. Suppose you preformed a simpe monohybrid cross between two
individuals that were heterozygous for the trait of interest.
Aa x Aa
The results of your cross are shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Results of a monohybrid coss between two heterozygotes for the 'a' gene.
A
a
Totals
A
10
33
43
a
42
15
57
Totals
52
48
100
The penotypic ratio 85 of the A type and 15 of the a-type (homozygous recessive). In a monohybrid
cross between two heterozygotes, however, we would have predicted a 3:1 ratio of phenotypes. In
other words, we would have expected to get 75 A-type and 25 a-type. Are or resuls different?
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Calculate the chi square statistic x2 by completing the following steps:
1. For each observed number in the table subtract the corresponding expected number (O E).
2. Square the difference [ (O E)2 ].
3. Divide the squares obtained for each cell in the table by the expected number for that cell [ (O E)2 / E ].
4. Sum all the values for (O - E)2 / E. This is the chi square statistic.
For our example, the calculation would be:
Observed Expected
(O
E)
(O E)2
(O E)2 / E
Atype
85
75
10
100
1.33
atype
15
25
10
100
4.0
Total
100
100
5.33
x2 = 5.33
We now have our chi square statistic (x2 = 5.33), our predetermined alpha level of significalnce
(0.05), and our degrees of freedom (df =1). Entering the Chi square distribution table with 1 degree of
freedom and reading along the row we find our value of x2 5.33) lies between 3.841 and 5.412. The
corresponding probability is 0.05<P<0.02. This is smaller than the conventionally accepted
significance level of 0.05 or 5%, so the null hypothesis that the two distributions are the same is
rejected. In other words, when the computed x2 statistic exceeds the critical value in the table for a
0.05 probability level, then we can reject the null hypothesis of equal distributions. Since our x2
statistic (5.33) exceeded the critical value for 0.05 probability level (3.841) we can reject the null
hypothesis that the observed values of our cross are the same as the theoretical distribution of a 3:1
ratio.
Table 3. Chi Square distribution table.
probability level (alpha)
Df
0.5
0.10
0.05
0.02
0.01
0.001
0.455 2.706 3.841
5.412
6.635
10.827
1.386 4.605 5.991
7.824
9.210
13.815
2.366 6.251 7.815
9.837
11.345 16.268
3.357 7.779 9.488
11.668 13.277 18.465
4.351 9.236 11.070 13.388 15.086 20.517
To put this into context, it means that we do not have a 3:1 ratio of A_ to aa offspring.
To make the chi square calculations a bit easier, plug your observed and expected values into the
following java applet.
Click on the cell and then enter the value. Click the compute button on the lower right corner to see
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the chi square value printed in the lower left hand coner.
Chi Square Test of Independence
For a contingency table that has r rows and c columns, the chi square test can be thought of as a test of
independence. In a test ofindependence the null and alternative hypotheses are:
Ho: The two categorical variables are independent.
Ha: The two categorical variables are related.
We can use the equation Chi Square = the sum of all the (fo - fe)2 / fe
Here fo denotes the frequency of the observed data and fe is the frequency of the expected values. The
general table would look something like the one below:
Category Category Category
I
II
III
Sample A
a
b
c
Sample B
d
e
f
Sample C
g
h
i
Column
a+d+g b+e+h
c+f+i
Totals
Row Totals
a+b+c
d+e+f
g+h+i
a+b+c+d+e+f+g+h+i=N
Now we need to calculate the expected values for each cell in the table and we can do that using the
the row total times the column total divided by the grand total (N). For example, for cell a the
expected value would be (a+b+c)(a+d+g)/N.
Once the expected values have been calculated for each cell, we can use the same procedure are
before for a simple 2 x 2 table.
Observed Expected
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|O (O E)2
E|
(O E)2 / E
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Suppose you have the following categorical data set.
Table . Incidence of three types of malaria in three tropical regions.
Asia Africa
Malaria
A
Malaria
B
Malaria
C
Totals
South
America
Totals
31
14
45
90
53
60
53
45
100
86
64
100
250
We could now set up the following table:
Observed
31
14
45
2
5
53
53
45
2
Expected
30.96
23.04
36.00
20.64
15.36
24.00
34.40
25.60
40.00
|O -E|
0.04
9.04
9.00
18.64
10.36
29.00
18.60
19.40
38.00
(O E)2
(O E)2 / E
0.0016
81.72
81.00
347.45
107.33
841.00
345.96
376.36
1444.00
0.0000516
3.546
2.25
16.83
6.99
35.04
10.06
14.70
36.10
Chi Square = 125.516
Degrees of Freedom = (c - 1)(r - 1) = 2(2) = 4
Table 3. Chi Square distribution table.
probability level (alpha)
Df
0.5
0.10
0.05
0.02
0.01
0.001
0.455 2.706 3.841
5.412
6.635
10.827
1.386 4.605 5.991
7.824
9.210
13.815
2.366 6.251 7.815
9.837
11.345 16.268
3.357 7.779 9.488
11.668 13.277 18.465
4.351 9.236 11.070 13.388 15.086 20.517
Reject Ho because 125.516 is greater than 9.488 (for alpha = 0.05)
Thus, we would reject the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between location and type of
malaria. Our data tell us there is a relationship between type of malaria and location, but that's all it
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says.
Follow the link below to access a java-based program for calculating Chi Square statistics for
contingency tables of up to 9 rows by 9 columns. Enter the number of row and colums in the spaces
provided on the page and click the submit button. A new form will appear asking you to enter your
actual data into the cells of the contingency table. When finished entering your data, click the
"calculate now" button to see the results of your Chi Square analysis. You may wish to print this last
page to keep as a record.
Chi Square,
This page was created as part of the Mathbeans Project. The java applets were created by David Eck
and modified by Jim Ryan. The Mathbeans Project is funded by a grant from the National Science
Foundation DUE-9950473.
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