THE FALLACY OF THE ECOLOGICAL FALLACY - THE POTENTIAL MISUSE OF A CONCEPT AND THE CONSEQUENCES
THE FALLACY OF THE ECOLOGICAL FALLACY - THE POTENTIAL MISUSE OF A CONCEPT AND THE CONSEQUENCES
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DOI：
10.2105/ajph.84.5.819
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发表时间：
1994-05-01
影响因子：
12.7
通讯作者：
SCHWARTZ, S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
SCHWARTZ, S
生态学研究在流行病学背景下被评价为“生态谬误”。虽然从生态和个人层面分析得出的相关性之间缺乏可比性的经验证据是令人信服的，但生态谬误的概念意义仍然存在问题。本文认为，跨层次推理中的问题可以有效地概念化为有效性问题，而不是生态层次分析所特有的问题。这种方法增加了对个人水平研究中潜在的推理问题和生态变量的独特贡献的认识。这反过来又扩大了查明疾病原因和采取干预措施改善公众健康的范围。
Ecological studies have been evaluated in epidemiological contexts in terms of the ''ecological fallacy.'' Although the empirical evidence for a lack of comparability between correlations derived from ecological- and individual-level analyses is compelling, the conceptual meaning of the ecological fallacy remains problematic. This paper argues that issues in cross-level inference can be usefully conceptualized as validity problems, problems not peculiar to ecological-level analyses. Such an approach increases the recognition of both potential inference problems in individual-level studies and the unique contributions of ecological variables. This, in turn, expands the terrain for the location of causes for disease and interventions to improve the public's health.