Raiders of the Lost Correlation: A Guide on Using Pearson and Spearman Coefficients to Detect Hidden Correlations in Medical Sciences

被引：51
作者：
Rovetta, Alessandro [1 ,2 ]
机构：
[1] Redeev Srl, Technol & Sci Res, Math Stat & Epidemiol Models, Naples, Italy
[2] Mensana Srls, Res & Disclosure Div, Math Stat & Epidemiol Models, Brescia, Italy
来源：
CUREUS JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE | 2020年 / 12卷 / 11期
关键词：
correlation; statistics; medical physics; medical statistics; pearson; spearman; APPROPRIATE USE;
D O I：
10.7759/cureus.11794
中图分类号：
R5 [内科学];
学科分类号：
1002 ; 100201 ;
摘要：
Pearson and Spearman correlations are important tools for all scientific fields and are widely used in medical sciences, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic emergency. This technical report has shown that conventional criteria for evaluating the adoption of these coefficients can conceal substantial scientific information regarding correlations that occur above or below a certain threshold. In particular, the Pearson coefficient can reveal hidden correlations even when data are not normally distributed. Finally, an optimized operational guide to reveal any hidden correlation is reported.
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页数：7
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