A principal axes method for comparing contingency tables: MFACT

A new methodology is introduced for comparing the structures of several contingency tables. The latter, built up from di6erent samples or populations, present the same rows and di6erent columns (or vice versa). This methodology combines some aspects of principal axes methods (global maximum dispersion axes), canonical correlation techniques (canonical dispersion axes) and Procrustes analysis (superimposed representations) but takes into account the particularities of contingency tables in order to extend correspondence analysis to multiple contingency tables. Two main problems arise: the di6erences between the margins of the common dimension and the need for balancing the in9uence of the di6erent tables in global processing. A study of the four structures induced on Spanish regions by mortality causes (by gender) and by age distribution (by gender), in conjunction, will illustrate the methodology. c © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.