NON- PARAMETRIC

TESTS
M.Prasad Naidu
MSc Medical Biochemistry, Ph.D,.

Non-parametric tests
Note: When valid use parametric
Commonly used
Wilcoxon
Chi square etc.
Performance comparable to parametric
Useful for non-normal data
If normalization not possible
Note: CI derivation-difficult/impossible

Wilcoxon signed rank test


To test difference between
paired data


STEP 1
Exclude any differences which are zero

Put the rest of differences in ascending
order

Ignore their signs

Assign them ranks

If any differences are equal, average their
ranks
STEP 2

Count up the ranks of +ives as T
+



Count up the ranks of ives as T
-
STEP 3
If there is no difference between drug (T
+
)
and placebo (T
-
), then T
+
& T
-
would be
similar

If there were a difference
one sum would be much smaller and
the other much larger than expected

The smaller sum is denoted as T

T = smaller of T
+
and T
-


STEP 4
Compare the value obtained with the
critical values (5%, 2% and 1% ) in
table

N is the number of differences that
were ranked (not the total number of
differences)

So the zero differences are excluded
Patient
Hours of sleep
Difference
Rank
Ignoring sign Drug Placebo
1 6.1 5.2 0.9 3.5*
2 7.0 7.9 -0.9 3.5*
3 8.2 3.9 4.3 10
4 7.6 4.7 2.9 7
5 6.5 5.3 1.2 5
6 8.4 5.4 3.0 8
7 6.9 4.2 2.7 6
8 6.7 6.1 0.6 2
9 7.4 3.8 3.6 9
10 5.8 6.3 -0.5 1
3
rd
& 4
th
ranks are tied hence averaged
T= smaller of T
+
(50.5) and T
-
(4.5)


Here T=4.5 significant at 2% level indicating the drug (hypnotic) is
more effective than placebo

Wilcoxon rank sum test

To compare two groups


Consists of 3 basic steps
Non-parametric equivalent of
t test

Step 1


Rank the data of both the groups in
ascending order

If any values are equal average their
ranks


Step 2

Add up the ranks in group with
smaller sample size

If the two groups are of the same
size either one may be picked

T= sum of ranks in group with
smaller sample size
Step 3
Compare this sum with the critical ranges
given in table

Look up the rows corresponding to the
sample sizes of the two groups

A range will be shown for the 5%
significance level


Non-smokers (n=15) Heavy smokers (n=14)
Birth wt (Kg) Rank Birth wt (Kg) Rank
3.99 27 3.18 7
3.79 24 2.84 5
3.60* 18 2.90 6
3.73 22 3.27 11
3.21 8 3.85 26
3.60* 18 3.52 14
4.08 28 3.23 9
3.61 20 2.76 4
3.83 25 3.60* 18
3.31 12 3.75 23
4.13 29 3.59 16
3.26 10 3.63 21
3.54 15 2.38 2
3.51 13 2.34 1
2.71 3
Sum=272 Sum=163
* 17, 18 & 19are tied hence the ranks are averaged
THANK YOU