Correlation

Assistant professor Dr. Shahrazad S. Al Jobori

MB,ChB.FICMS, Community Medicine
University of Kerbala – College of Medicine
Department of Family & Community Medicine
?What is correlation
Correlation is a statistical measure that
expresses the extent to which two
continuous variables are linearly related
(meaning they change together at a
.constant rate)
It’s a common tool for describing simple
relationships without making a statement
.about cause and effect
How is correlation measured? The sample
correlation coefficient, r, quantifies the strength &
the direction of the relationship. Correlations are
also tested for statistical significance through p-
.value by applying student T test
?What are some limitations of correlation analysis
Correlation can’t look at the presence or effect of
other variables outside of the two being explored.
Importantly, correlation doesn’t tell us about
cause and effect ( causal relationship). Correlation
also cannot accurately describe curvilinear
.relationships
Correlations describe data moving together
Correlations are useful for describing simple
.relationships among data
In statistical terms, correlation is a method of
assessing a possible two-way linear association
.between two continuous variables
Correlation is measured by a statistic called the
correlation coefficient dented as r, which
represents the strength of the linear association
.between the variables in question
?What do correlation numbers mean
We describe correlations with a unit-free
measure called the correlation coefficient
which ranges from -1 to +1. Statistical
.significance is indicated with a p-value
Therefore, correlations are typically written
. = with two key numbers: r = and p
There are several types of correlation
coefficients but the one that is most common
.is the Pearson correlation r
It is a parametric test that is only
recommended when the variables are
normally distributed and the relationship
between them is linear. Otherwise, non-
parametric Kendall and Spearman correlation
.tests should be used
Pearson correlation (r) is used to measure strength
and direction of a linear relationship between two
variables. Mathematically this can be done by
dividing the covariance of the two variables by the
product of their standard deviations.
Covariance is a measure of how much two
random variables vary together. It’s similar to
variance, but variance tells how a single variable
varies, co variance tells us how
.. two variables vary together
The closer r is to zero, the weaker the linear
.relationship
Positive r values indicate a positive
correlation, where the values of both
.variables tend to increase together
Negative r values indicate a negative
correlation, where the values of one variable
tend to increase when the values of the other
.variable decrease
The p-value gives us evidence that we can
meaningfully conclude that the population
correlation coefficient is likely different from
zero, based on what we observe from the
.sample
Unit-free measure" means that correlations"
.exist on their own scale
This is different from other summary statistics.
For instance, the mean of serum TG of a
sample is the same of that of each study
.participant
?What is a p-value
A p-value is a measure of probability used for
.hypothesis testing
Once we’ve obtained a significant correlation, we
can also look at its strength. A perfect positive
correlation has a value of 1, and a perfect negative
.correlation has a value of -1
But in the real world, we would never expect to
see a perfect correlation unless one variable is
.actually a proxy measure for the other
Another useful piece of information is the n,
or number of observations. As with most
statistical tests, knowing the size of the
sample helps us judge the strength of our
sample and how well it represents the
.population
For example, if we only measured serum TG
of 30 males and the city counts 3000 males,
we’d want to add more participants to our
.sample to be a representative sample
Visualizing correlations with scatterplots
A scatterplot is a type of data display that
shows the relationship between two
numerical variables. Each member of the
dataset gets plotted as a point whose (x,
y) coordinates relates to its values for the two
.variables
Each point in the plot represents one sample,
.which we can place on an x- and y-axis
The correlation coefficient (r) also illustrates
the scatterplot. It tells us, in numerical terms,
how close the points mapped in the
scatterplot come to a linear relationship ( the
.best fitted line)
Stronger relationships, or bigger r values,
mean relationships where the points are very
.close to the line which we’ve fit to the data
?What about more complex relationships
Scatterplots are also useful for determining whether
there is anything in the data that might disrupt an
accurate correlation, such as unusual patterns like a
.curvilinear relationship or an extreme outlier
Correlations can’t accurately capture curvilinear
relationships. In a curvilinear relationship, variables
are correlated in a given direction until a certain
.point, where the relationship changes
 :References
-https://www.jmp.com/en_ca/statistics -1
knowledge-portal/what-is-regression.html
you-need-to-k
c0b8
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23638278/- -3