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The Use and Abuse of Correlation Coefficients
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
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Khoury et al1 report significant correlations
between peripheral blood T-cell activation markers and disease activity in
multiple sclerosis (MS). Indeed, they find a number of statistically significant
correlations between changes in percentages of T cells expressing CD25+ or CD4+ and magnetic resonance imaging measures of disease
activity and even disability measurements. However, in placing emphasis on
the statistical significance (P value) of the test
result, they make the classic error of ignoring the actual magnitude of the
observed correlation. Most of their conclusions about relationships between
T-cell activation and disease activity are based on correlations with r values between 0.16 and 0.33 (with 0.0 representing no
correlation at all and 1.0 a perfect correlation). To put the magnitude of
the observed correlations into perspective, the observed relationship can
only explain (r2) 2.5% to 11% of the variability
in the selected parameters!2 Conversely,
other parameters must explain the . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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