Lecture 2 - relationships in research Flashcards
Relationships in the research inform what we do.
EX: if I know that increased hip ROM = reduced falls w/ stair navigation w/ some diagnosis, im going to work directly on hip ROM to decrease fall risk
Measures the strength of association between 2 or more vairiables
* How releated two things are
Correlation (does not = causation)
If one goes up the other goes up
For example grip strength and fall risk are correlated. More grip strength = less fall risk. However, grip strength in no way helps you not fall. So them being correleated isnt the cause of decreased falls
* However, deconditioning overall, affects both of these factors - if im a deconditined individual im most likely not going to have good grip strength, and my fall risk is going to increase because im not improving strength/challenging balance
* So grip strength and fall risk are releated, however, they don’t directly affect one another (corelation did not = causation)
r = 1 means if one variable increases the other increase
r = -1 means as one increases the other decreases (still a relationship)
* negative relaionship
r = .14 is barley any relationship (norms shown later)
How strong or weak the relationship between two indepedent variables are
Correlation
are they in a close relationship where one increases in the other increases/decreases or they they have no affect on eachother
* NOTE: its still a relationship if one increases at the same time the other decreases and visa versa. Its not a relationship when theres no pattern pattern found
Perasons product moment correlation (r): Defines the magnitude and direction of a LINEAR relationship
r = 0 means no relationship
Correlation means the two are releated, not that one causes the other
* So, when you’re looking at a study you want to know if they controled for confounding factors (something that would influence this relationship)
Grip strength does not directly reduce risk of falling. But deconditioning level does.
* So it may look like decreased grip strength is causing increased fall risk, however, its the conditioning and they would need to control for this.
* Since grip strength and falling have an indirect relationship we can still use that relationship to quantify the risk of falling by getting a numerical value on grip strength (essentially measureing deconditioning by getting grip strength, and deconditioning has a direct relationship on fall risk)
* Because we don’t really have a good deconditioning measurement, so can use the quantitative value of grip strength for this
Confounding factors: variables that affect both the indepdent variable (what is being studied) and the depdent variable (the outcome), making it difficult to determine the true relationship between them
* these factors can give misleading results because theu introduce bias, suggesting a false association or masking a real one
EX: Imagine a study is trying to determine if drinking coffee leads to better job performance. The researcjers find that people who drink coffee tend to perform better at work. However, a confounding factor could be sleep habits. People who drink coffee might also sleep less or have different energy levels, which could influence their job performance.
* In this case, its unclear if the improved job performance is due to the coffee itself or the fact that these people have different sleep patterns. To draw accurate conclusions, the researchers would need to control for sleep habits to separate the effect of coffee on job performance.
KNOW: correlation r can be used to measure effect size and estimate power or sample size
Effect size = amount of effect the indepdent variable has on the dependent variable
r = 0.1 will indiacte a weak effect size (the indepdent variable barley affects the outcome or dependent variable)
r = 0.8 represent a strong effect size (the indepdent variable signficantly impact the outcome or depdent variable)
The closer r is to 1 or -1, the stronger the effect size, meaning the indepdent variable has a larger influence on the depdenent variable
power is the porability of detecting an effect if there is one, while sample size referes to the number of participants needed in a study.
Higher correlation (r) values typically require fewer participants to detect an effect because the relationship between the variables is stronger
Lower correlation (r) values require larger sample sizes to detect an effect because the relationship is weaker and harder to observe
To estimate power or sample size, researchers sue correlation (r) in power analysis. The stronger the correlation (effect size), the fewer particiapnts are needed to achieve a high level of power
r values:
* Strong =
* Moderate to good =
* Low to Fair =
* Little to no relationship =
Remember these values can be positive or negative vales depending on the relation (r = -1 or 1)
Body weight and exercse time per week is a positive or negative relationship?
negative
Increased exercise = Decreased body weight
As one variable increases the other decreases
Exercise intensity and heart rate is a positive or negative relationship?
Positive
Increased intensity = Increased HR
As one variable increases the other decreases
Assumptions of correlation:
With correlation do we assume a normal distribution or abnormal distribution (w/ graph)
Normal
Think a bell curve
* this is a natural phenomena (like height, weight, and test scores) tend to follow this normal distribution
Assymptions of correlation:
* Each subject contributes a score for the X and Y axis
What does this mean in the study below?
It means we know both their age and their strength
It means if there was any fall off in the study it should not be included
* Say you got the age but never got a strength measurement, well that data shouldnt be included
Assumptions for correlation
* X and Y are independent measures
Meaning they can be releated (which is why were doing the study, to see how strongly releated they are) but they can’t be apart of it
EX: If I’m doing doing a study on BMI, I shouldnt do a study of BMI vs Height, because height is litteraly apart of BMI (height/weight)
* Ofc those things are releated, one influences the other directly
* This serves no value or purpose
EX: We couldnt do gait speed and distance traveled
* Because gait speed = distance/time and distance is litteraly apart of gait speed (very interreleated)
* Distance is going to directly affect it
- **EX: A good one would be gait speed vs fall risk
- They’re releated but the other does not directly influence the other**
- One is completely indepdent of the other
Dichotomous
type of question that offers only to possible answers (think yes or no questions)
* either or, theres two options
Assumptions of correlation
*X values are observed
X values are observed: This means you collect data on X, a variable of interest, without manipulating it. X could be something like age, weight or income.
Y can be inte intervention: In some studies Y referes to an intervention or treatment that you apply to see if it affects X. For exmaple, Y could be a medication, and you’re interested in seeing how it affects BP (X)
X is the outcome: in other contexts, X might be the outcome you’re measuring after applying Y. For instance, you apply an intervention (Y) and then observe the outome (X), such as changes in behavior or health status
Both X and Y can also be observed. This means that in many studies, both variables are simply measured without any intervention. For example you might observe the relation ship between height (X) and weight (Y) in a population. Here both X and Y are observed, and you’re looking at how they correlate naturally without any experimental manipulation
Sometimes Y is an intervention or treatment, X is the outcome you’re interesed in
In other cases, both X and Y are just observed variables, and you study how they relate to each other without manipulating them.
X = the depdentend variable (for when Y is the intervention)
Both would be observed in gait speed and fall risk
* theres no intervention being implemented here, just observedation.
X is always some observed measure
Assumptions in correlation:
* The relationship must be liner - specifically for peasrons product (r)
5 assumptions in correlation
1) Normal distrubtion
2) Each subject contributes a score for the X and Y axis
3) X and Y are independent measures
4) X values are always observed
5) The relationship must be linear (r)
NOTE: This is an example of a non linear relationship. you can see the r value is low because its non linear
When they use a non linear line of best fit (like below) they will state what it was.
However, for just straight correlation, we must utilize a linear relationship
KNOW: in the study below they wanted to see if there was a relationship between cognitive function and ambulation ability
null hypothesis = correlation is 0 (no relationship between variables, each one is indepdenent and they do not affect eachother at all)
* H0: ρ = 0
Alternative hypothesis = correlation is not 0, there is some sort of relationship there
* H1: ρ ≠ 0
note we use ρ instead of r due to the assumption that data represents population
* because the data is the normal distribution it can represent the general population (think bell curve)
r = 0.348 (low to fair)
* slight positive correlation (not very strong, kind of all over the place [look at graph below]
what is a null relationship?
Assumes there is no effect or relationship between variables
It serves as a default starting position
EX: If you’re studying whether a new drug lowers BP, the null hypothesis would state: “The new drug has no effect on blood pressure.” This means you’re starting with the assumption that the drug does not work (meaning the variables had no affect on eachother)
The goal of research is to collect data and analyze it to either
1) Reject the null hypothesis (meaning there is evidence that supports an effect or relationship exists)
2) Fail to reject the null hypothesis (meaning the data does not provide strong enough evidence to conclude an effect or relationship exists)
** TEST: shes going to ask us what a graph generally looks like and if its a strong correlation, and if its positive or negative correlation**
* If it matches the r value given