Assignment 4: Correlations

This week, you explore key statistical concepts related to data and problem solving through the completion of the following exercises using SPSS and the information found in your Statistics and Data Analysis for Nursing Research textbook. The focus of this assignment will be on correlation coefficients, tools that can help to determine the strength of the relationship between variables. Because multiple factors influence health care variables, it is important for you to understand how to calculate and interpret correlation coefficients.

To prepare:

· Review the Statistics and Data Analysis for Nursing Research chapters that you read as a part of the Week 6 Learning Resources. As you do so, pay close attention to the examples presented—they provide information that will be useful for you to recall when completing the software exercises. 

You may also wish to review the Research Methods for Evidence-Based Practice video resources.

· Refer to the Week 6 Correlations Exercises and follow the directions to calculate correlational statistics using Polit2SetB.sav data set (see attached file)

· Compare your data output against the tables presented in the Week 6 Correlations Exercises SPSS Output document (see attached file)

· Formulate an initial interpretation of the meaning or implication of your calculations.

To complete:

· Complete the Part I and Part II steps and Assignments as outlined in the Week 6 Correlations Exercises page (see attached file). Due Thursday 10/05/17 by 6pm

This assignment requires the use of

Required Media

Walden University. (n.d.). Correlations. Retrieved August 1, 2011, from http://streaming.waldenu.edu/hdp/researchtutorials/educ8106_player/educ8106_correlations.html

Required Readings

Gray, J.R., Grove, S.K., & Sutherland, S. (2017). Burns and Grove’s the practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.

• Chapter      23, “Using Statistics to Examine Relationships”

Chapter 23 explains how to use statistics to examine relationships between groups using correlational analyses, scatter diagrams, Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient, and Kendall’s tau.

Statistics and Data Analysis for Nursing Research

• Chapter      4, “Bivariate Description: Crosstabulation, Risk Indexes, and Correlation”      (pp. 59–61 and 68–78)

This chapter describes components of bivariate descriptive statistics, including crosstabulation, risk indexes, and correlation. The chapter also discusses the concepts of absolute risk, relative risk, odds ratio, and correlation matrices.

• Chapter      9, “Correlation and Simple Regression” (pp. 197–209)

This portion of Chapter 9 continues the discussion of inferential statistics and explores correlation and simple linear regression.