Correlation

By
Adusei Bofa
 Introduction

Another area of inferential statistics involves determining whether a

relationship exists between two or more numerical or quantitative
variables.
• Medical researchers are interested in questions such as, Is caffeine related to
heart damage?
• Is there a relationship between a person’s age and his or her blood pressure?
• Educators are interested in determining whether the number of hours a
student studies is related to the student’s score on a particular exam.
 • Correlation analysis show us how to determine both the nature
and strength of relationship between two variables

Two variables for this study are called the independent variable (x) and the
dependent variable (y).
➢ For example, if a researcher studies the effects of age on a person’s
blood pressure, the researcher can generally assume that age affects
blood pressure.
• Hence, the variable age can be called the independent variable, and the
variable blood pressure can be called the dependent variable
Example 1
 Correlation Coefficient
Biostatisticians

The range of the correlation coefficient is from -1 to +1.

❑If there is a strong positive linear relationship between the variables, the value of r
will be close to +1
❑If there is a strong negative linear relationship between the variables, the value of
r will be close to -1.
❑When there is no linear relationship between the variables or only a weak
relationship, the value of r will be close to 0
Range of Values for the Correlation Coefficient
Relationship Between the Correlation Coefficient and the Scatter Plot
Relationship Between the Correlation Coefficient and the Scatter Plot
Example 2

Compute the correlation coefficient r

A researcher wishes to see if there is a relationship between the ages and weight
of children for the wealthiest people in GCUC. The data for a specific year are
shown.
Weight of Children (y)
Weight of Children(y)