Question

body mass index and blood pressure. researchers conducted a study to determine if there is an association between body mass index and systolic blood pressure. To evaluate their data, they examined the correlation between systolic blood pressure and body mass index and calculated r-squared how would you explain this finding.

Answer 1

Correlation tells us the nature of relationship between two variables. If the magnitude of correlation is more than 0.6, it indicates high correlation between the two variables. The sign of the correlation tells us the direction of correlation ie positive sign indicates direct linear relationship (ie when one variable increases, another also increases and vice versa) while the negative sign indicates inverse relationship (ie when one variable increases, another decreases and vice versa). We expect positive correlation between blood pressure and body mass index

The R square tell us how much of the variability in the dependent variable can be explained by the independent variable. Suppose our R Square is 0.60 then it signifies that 60% of the variation in the dependent variable can be explained by the independent variable.