Business Context

FitLife, a health and wellness company, is analyzing data from an observational study to understand the relationship between exercise frequency and weight loss among its users. The company aims to determine if increased exercise leads to weight loss or if both are influenced by other factors.

Given Data

Task

Determine if the observed relationship between exercise frequency and weight loss indicates a causal effect or merely a correlation.

Requirements

1. Discuss the difference between correlation and causation in this context.
2. Calculate the correlation coefficient between exercise frequency and weight loss.
3. Identify potential confounding variables that could affect the relationship.
4. Propose a method to strengthen the causal inference from this observational data.

Assumptions

• Data is collected accurately and represents a suitable sample of the population.
• Users self-reported their exercise frequency and weight loss, which may introduce bias.