HELP ME PLEASE A hospital found that a lower outside temperature indicates a higher number of patient visits. What can we determine from this information?

There is no correlation between outside temperature and number of patient visits.

There is a correlation between outside temperature and number of patient visits. However, there is no causation. This is because there is an increase in the number of patient visits with a decrease in the temperature outside.

There is a correlation between outside temperature and number of patient visits. There may or may not be causation. Further studies would have to be done to determine this.

Answer

There is a correlation (negative correlation in fact because patient numbers decrease with an increase in temperature or vice versa) between outside temperature and number of patient visits. There may or may not be causation. Further studies would have to be done to determine this.

There might be a causation factor because lower temperatures is associated with winter which is influenza season.

This means that it is reasonable to assume correlation may mean causation.

If it was let’s say a correlation between sales of ice cream and number of people drowning. There is no causation, as sales of ice cream don’t directly impact number of drowning incidents. It’s due to a hidden variable (temperature).