In large sample studies where distributions may be skewed and not readily transformed to symmetry, it may be of greater interest to compare different distributions in terms of percentiles rather than means. For exampl...In large sample studies where distributions may be skewed and not readily transformed to symmetry, it may be of greater interest to compare different distributions in terms of percentiles rather than means. For example, it may be more informative to compare two or more populations with respect to their within population distributions by testing the hypothesis that their corresponding respective 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles are equal. As a generalization of the median test, the proposed test statistic is asymptotically distributed as Chi-square with degrees of freedom dependent upon the number of percentiles tested and constraints of the null hypothesis. Results from simulation studies are used to validate the nominal 0.05 significance level under the null hypothesis, and asymptotic power properties that are suitable for testing equality of percentile profiles against selected profile discrepancies for a variety of underlying distributions. A pragmatic example is provided to illustrate the comparison of the percentile profiles for four body mass index distributions.展开更多
Testing the equality of percentiles (quantiles) between populations is an effective method for robust, nonparametric comparison, especially when the distributions are asymmetric or irregularly shaped. Unlike global no...Testing the equality of percentiles (quantiles) between populations is an effective method for robust, nonparametric comparison, especially when the distributions are asymmetric or irregularly shaped. Unlike global nonparametric tests for homogeneity such as the Kolmogorv-Smirnov test, testing the equality of a set of percentiles (i.e., a percentile profile) yields an estimate of the location and extent of the differences between the populations along the entire domain. The Wald test using bootstrap estimates of variance of the order statistics provides a unified method for hypothesis testing of functions of the population percentiles. Simulation studies are conducted to show performance of the method under various scenarios and to give suggestions on its use. Several examples are given to illustrate some useful applications to real data.展开更多
文摘In large sample studies where distributions may be skewed and not readily transformed to symmetry, it may be of greater interest to compare different distributions in terms of percentiles rather than means. For example, it may be more informative to compare two or more populations with respect to their within population distributions by testing the hypothesis that their corresponding respective 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles are equal. As a generalization of the median test, the proposed test statistic is asymptotically distributed as Chi-square with degrees of freedom dependent upon the number of percentiles tested and constraints of the null hypothesis. Results from simulation studies are used to validate the nominal 0.05 significance level under the null hypothesis, and asymptotic power properties that are suitable for testing equality of percentile profiles against selected profile discrepancies for a variety of underlying distributions. A pragmatic example is provided to illustrate the comparison of the percentile profiles for four body mass index distributions.
文摘Testing the equality of percentiles (quantiles) between populations is an effective method for robust, nonparametric comparison, especially when the distributions are asymmetric or irregularly shaped. Unlike global nonparametric tests for homogeneity such as the Kolmogorv-Smirnov test, testing the equality of a set of percentiles (i.e., a percentile profile) yields an estimate of the location and extent of the differences between the populations along the entire domain. The Wald test using bootstrap estimates of variance of the order statistics provides a unified method for hypothesis testing of functions of the population percentiles. Simulation studies are conducted to show performance of the method under various scenarios and to give suggestions on its use. Several examples are given to illustrate some useful applications to real data.
