Between- and Within-Cluster Spearman Rank Correlations.

ABSTRACT: Clustered data are common in practice. Clustering arises when subjects are measured repeatedly, or subjects are nested in groups (e.g., households, schools). It is often of interest to evaluate the correlation between two variables with clustered data. There are three commonly used Pearson correlation coefficients (total, between-, and within-cluster), which together provide an enriched perspective of the correlation. However, these Pearson correlation coefficients are sensitive to extreme values and skewed distributions. They also vary with data transformation, which is arbitrary and often difficult to choose, and they are not applicable to ordered categorical data. Current nonparametric correlation measures for clustered data are only for the total correlation. Here we define population

SUBMITTER: Tu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11758474 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature