Yates's correction for continuity and the analysis of 2 × 2 contingency tables

Abstract

Despite recommendations to the contrary, medical researchers still routinely use the Yates-corrected chisquare statistic in analyses of 2 × 2 contingency tables. Research has shown that these ‘corrected’ statistics are overly conservative and that the conventional Pearson chi-square generally provides adequate control over type I error probabilities. This paper makes a straightforward argument against use of Yates's correction for continuity and Fisher's exact probability test.