[R] Fligner-Killeen test on binary data

[peter dalgaard]

That's not an R question but a stats question, but I wouldn't do it. For one thing: The variance of binary data is a function of the mean, so the research question is dubious in the first place. Secondly, the test is based on ranking and comparing absolute differences from the group median, which for binary data is generally 0 or 1, so all absolute differences will be 1.... Put differently, the results are more than likely to be complet rubbish.

-pd 

> On 04 Apr 2016, at 11:48 , emeline mourocq <emeline.mourocq at uzh.ch> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> 
> 
> I investigate survival until the following year (0,1) and I wish to test if
> the variance in survival for two or more groups are significantly different
> from each other.
> 
> 
> 
> I read that the Fligner-Killeen test is a non-parametric test which is very
> robust against departures from normality but is it correct (valuable
> technique for publication) to use it on binary data?
> 
> 
> 
> In other words, can I use
> fligner.test(survival~categorical_predictor,data=mydata) when survival is
> binary (0,1)?
> 
> 
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Emeline
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Office: A 4.23
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com