Be careful with ecological associations.
confounding
ecological fallacy
ecological studies
Journal
Nephrology (Carlton, Vic.)
ISSN: 1440-1797
Titre abrégé: Nephrology (Carlton)
Pays: Australia
ID NLM: 9615568
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Jun 2021
Jun 2021
Historique:
received:
01
02
2021
accepted:
06
02
2021
pubmed:
12
2
2021
medline:
4
1
2022
entrez:
11
2
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Ecological studies are observational studies commonly used in public health research. The main characteristic of this study design is that the statistical analysis is based on pooled (i.e., aggregated) rather than on individual data. Thus, patient-level information such as age, gender, income and disease condition are not considered as individual characteristics but as mean values or frequencies, calculated at country or community level. Ecological studies can be used to compare the aggregated prevalence and incidence data of a given condition across different geographical areas, to assess time-related trends of the frequency of a pre-defined disease/condition, to identify factors explaining changes in health indicators over time in specific populations, to discriminate genetic from environmental causes of geographical variation in disease, or to investigate the relationship between a population-level exposure and a specific disease or condition. The major pitfall in ecological studies is the ecological fallacy, a bias which occurs when conclusions about individuals are erroneously deduced from results about the group to which those individuals belong. In this paper, by using a series of examples, we provide a general explanation of the ecological studies and provide some useful elements to recognize or suspect ecological fallacy in this type of studies.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Review
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
501-505Informations de copyright
© 2021 Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology.
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