Beyond the ecological fallacy

Beyond the ecological fallacy: potential problems when studying healthcare organisations.

Ecological studies, which consider patient groups rather than individuals, are common in health policy research. The ‘ecological fallacy’ is a well-recognised methodological concern, but in this perspectives paper, we focus on less often appreciated but equally important limitations of such studies. In particular, we consider reliability and power as they apply to ecological studies, and make r...

Ecological Inference and the Ecological Fallacy

In 19th century Europe, suicide rates were higher in countries that were more heavily Protestant, the inference being that suicide was promoted by the social conditions of Protestantism (Durkheim 1897; also see Neeleman and Lewis 1999). According to Carroll (1975), death rates from breast cancer are higher in countries where fat is a larger component of the diet, the idea being that fat intake ...

The ecological fallacy strikes back.

service Email alerting top right corner of the article Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article-sign up in the box at the

Three Criteria for Ecological Fallacy

A 332 volume 119 | number 8 | August 2011 • Environmental Health Perspectives mental design may under lie observed differ­ ences in sensitivity to detect neuro toxicity, possibly because of differences in bio kinetics and exposure during sensitive windows of development. Fortunately, much effort is tak­ ing place in the scientific community to opti­ mize experi mental designs at different level...

Health-Exposure Modelling and the Ecological Fallacy