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The linked article's title says "connection", the article says "correlation". A phrase later in the articles shows that further study may find a connection; im
by AndrewOMartin 11y ago
The linked article's title says "connection", the article says "correlation".
A phrase later in the articles shows that further study may find a connection; implying that they don't have one already.
A more accurate HN link title is "Study could help scientists uncover new disease risk factors pertaining to birth date".
- judemelancon 11y agoI am unaware of an applicable technical meaning of "connection". Does "connection" mean "causation" to you in a statistical context? If not, does it mean something stronger, weaker, or simply distinct? Is there a particular source for this meaning, like a style guide or technical work? (These are all honest questions; I like precision as much as the next scientific paper reader.)
- AndrewOMartin 11y agoI expect a usage of the word that means they had a evidence for a certain amount of the causation. It's a complicated universe so full causal explanations are pretty much always unattainable in the real world, but I'd hope for some identification and discussion of a mechanism.
- nimblegorilla 11y agoRead the article more carefully and you see they do state a connection between birth month and disease risks. The connections that they haven't found are the specific risk factors caused by the birth month. The connections that MAY be found might be things like: - November babies getting exposed to extreme cold during the first month of development - Spring babies exposed to high pollen