Robust alternatives to traditional analysis of variance: Welch W*, James J I*, James J II*, Brown-Forsythe BF*.

James F. Reed III, PhD, Lehigh Valley Health Network
D B Stark

Abstract

Contaminated data sets commonly appear in biomedical sciences. Traditional statistical analyses are based on a 'normality' assumption and homogeneity of variances assumption. If either or both assumptions are violated, traditional statistical procedures may give an inflated type I error rate and are then not robust. Robust alternatives to traditional one-way analysis of variance have better power curves and protect against inflated type I error rates.