Logistic Regression Using SAS®: Theory and Application

4.1. Introduction

To many people, categorical data analysis means the analysis of contingency tables, also known as cross tabulations. For decades, the mainstay of contingency table analysis was the chi-square test introduced by Karl Pearson in 1900. However, things changed dramatically with the development of the loglinear model in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Loglinear analysis made it possible to analyze multi-way contingency tables, testing both simple and complex hypotheses in an elegant statistical framework. In Chapter 10, we’ll see how to estimate loglinear models by using the GENMOD procedure.

Although loglinear analysis is still a popular approach to the analysis of contingency tables, logit analysis can often do a better job. In ...