Abstract
A nontechnical exposition is presented of current statistical techniques for the analysis
of multidimensional tables of counted data. Performing an original analysis of a data
set of interest to researchers in health policy and medicine, the paper considers
what kinds of questions an analysis by loglinear modeling can address, and what kinds
of answers it can obtain and how they may be sought. Unlike most previous expository
accounts seeking to provide introductions to this field, this paper does not require
a background from the reader in either regression or the analysis of variance. By
a thoroughgoing use of odds ratios and higher-order odds ratios, it nevertheless provides
a technically accurate account of the key concepts of higher-order interactions among
variables, and of models being hierarchical.
Statistically more advanced readers are provided with a means of effectively expositing
their loglinear modeling methods and conclusions to nonstatisticians; a number of
footnotes are directed toward such readers.
Key-Words
Categorical Data - Contingency Tables - Cross-Classifications - Health Policy - Interaction
Terms - Loglinear Models - Odds Ratios - Stepwise Selection