Interpreting p-value = 1.000?

Interpreting p-value = 1.000?

by Rachel Wattier -
Number of replies: 2

I'm using Fisher's exact test for some of my own data and occasionally get p-values of 1.000 in Stata. I'm wondering how to interpret this. At first I thought this was a mistake, but thinking a bit more, I think it's possible - am I correct in interpreting this as "the probability of a contingency table as or more extreme than the one observed is essentially 1"? This generally happens with the proportions in the two groups are very similar. As with a p-value of 0.000, is there a convention for rounding these when presenting them in tables? Should I round down to 0.999? Or just leave it at 1.000?

In reply to Rachel Wattier

Re: Interpreting p-value = 1.000?

by Judith Hahn -

Hi, a p-value of 1.000 is very unusual but it is possible.  It is probably ok to round down to .9999 for presentation purposes, and you are reaching the same conclusion.