Canadian Health Information Management Association Practice Exam 2026 - Free CHIMA Practice Questions and Study Guide

The correct answer is indicative of a negative relationship because when one variable increases, the other decreases. In this context, if the salary of a Health Information Management (HIM) professional is inversely proportional to their age, it means that as the age of the professional goes up, their salary goes down, and conversely, as their age decreases, their salary increases. This is a classic example of a negative relationship, where the two variables move in opposite directions.

In contrast, a linear relationship would suggest that the variables either both increase or both decrease together, which would not hold true with the inverse proportionality described. A situation characterized by no correlation would suggest that changes in age would have no effect on salary, which contradicts the premise of the question. Lastly, a positive relationship would indicate that as one variable increases, so does the other, which is again contrary to the idea of an inverse relationship. Thus, the nature of the relationship described in the question is best captured by the concept of a negative correlation.