如何理解relationship,correlation和association之间的区别

　　relation/relationship 关系，联系，往来;常常在文章中用作the relation/relationship betwwen A and B relationship 更强调关系，比如说男女的暧昧关系、

　　relationship和Relation不能相互替换：

　　These are not interchangeable. "Relationship" is used to describe a social bond, such as between a mother and a child, a teacher and a child, etc. "Relation" is used to describe non-animate associations, including those between variables.

　　correlation，correlation的两边是变量(常为continuous data)，表示的是两个变量相互之间的变化关系(正相关或负相关)，如：Birth weight is positively correlated with maternal body.

　　association的两边往往是原因和结果(常为categorical data)，表示的是二者之间的因果关系，如：

　　Male sex and smoking are associated with squamous carcinoma.

　　这个association是通过卡方检验(涉及categorical data的组间差异比较)和logistic回归分析(因变量是categorical data)得出来的。

　　总结：

　　1、因果联系的话，使用association。

　　2、relation用来刻画两个变量之间的关系。