A Test Procedure for Ordered Hypothesis of Population Proportions Against a Control

Abstract

Objective: This paper aims to present a novel procedure for testing a set of population proportions against an ordered alternative with a control. Material and Methods: The distribution of the test statistic for the proposed test was determined theoretically and through Monte-Carlo experiments. The efficiency of the proposed test method was compared with the classical Chi-square test of homogeneity of population proportions using their empirical Type I error rates and powers at various sample sizes. Results: The new test statistic that was developed for testing a set of population proportions against an ordered alternative with a control was found to have a Chi-square distribution with non-integer values degrees of freedom v that depend on the number of population groups k being compared. Table of values of v for comparing up to 26 population groups was constructed while an expression was developed to determine v for cases where k > 26. Further results showed that the new test method is capable of detecting the superiority of a treatment, for instance a new drug type, over some of the existing ones in situations where only the qualitative data on users' preferences of all the available treatments (drug types) are available. The new test method was found to be relatively more powerful and consistent at estimating the nominal Type I error rates (α), especially at smaller sample sizes than the classical Chi-square test of homogeneity of population proportions. Conclusion: The new test method proposed here could find applications in pharmacology where a newly developed drug might be expected to be more preferred by users than some of the existing ones. This kind of test problem can equally exist in medicine, engineering and humanities in situations where only the qualitative data on users' preferences of a set of treatments or systems are available.