The odds ratio is a very useful device for the analysis of
It measures association
and underlies the maths behind loglinear models and logistic regression.
What are odds?
The odds of outcome 1 versus
outcome 2 are the probability (or frequency) of outcome 1 divided
by the probability (or frequency) of outcome 2.
Contrast this with probability or proportions: one category's
probability is its frequency divided by the total frequency:
Where there are only two outcomes (e.g., winning and losing):
A horse given odds of 5:2 has 2 chances in 7 () of
Odds measure the frequency or probability of one outcome
relative to another.
Odds ratios involve comparing the odds of a pair of
outcomes on one variable, for a pair of categories of a
The overall odds of owning versus renting are
. That is, there are far more owners.
However, separately for Conservative
and Labour voters:
The Odds-Ratio for conservative versus labour voters being
owners versus private renters is 1.51. That is, even though
labour voters are predominantly house-owners, conservative voters
are much more likely to be house-owners.
A table under independence will have an odds
ratio of 1, whatever the marginals.
If we know the odds ratio and the marginals for a
table we can calculate all the cell sizes.
For bigger 2-D tables, we can reconstruct all the cell counts
from the marginals and a set of odds ratios that involve all the
The odds ratios are therefore equivalent to the structure of
Loglinear models essentially define a pattern of odds ratios,
apply the marginals to them, and compare the resulting table with
the observed table, in pretty much the same way we apply the
Pearson test for association. The big difference is the
pattern we define can be much more complicated than independence.