On the small-sample properties of the Mantel-Haenszel test for relative risk

Abstract

For the analysis of combinations of 2 × 2 contingency tables Cochran (1954) and also Mantel & Haenszel (1959) proposed related statistics for the null hypothesis that the relative risk Ψ has the value unity from table to table. Using the model with constant effects on a logistic scale of probabilities (e.g. Cox, 1970), this paper presents some numerical studies on the exact distribution of the Mantel-Haenszel test statistic under the null hypothesis, as well as its exact power under several alternatives to the null hypothesis, when the sample sizes are small.