Yates's Correction

Frank Yates's correction is an adjustment that might be applied to a chi-square analysis when evaluating the association between two dichotomous variables. Such data are often presented in the form of frequencies in a 2 × 2 contingency table. In this context, chi-square is a test of independence, as it is intended to evaluate whether the two variables are associated (vs. independent) in the population from which the sample of participants was drawn. However, the traditional Pearson's chi-square statistic might not be applicable to all cases of 2 × 2 contingency tables. Yates's correction was designed to adjust the Pearson chi-square test of independence to make it applicable to 2 × 2 contingency tables with very small expected frequencies; however, its applicability has been hotly ...