EFFECTS OF NONDIFFERENTIAL EXPOSURE MISCLASSIFICATION IN ECOLOGIC STUDIES
EFFECTS OF NONDIFFERENTIAL EXPOSURE MISCLASSIFICATION IN ECOLOGIC STUDIES
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DOI：
10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116205
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发表时间：
1992-01-01
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
GREENLAND, S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
BRENNER, H;SAVITZ, DA;GREENLAND, S
尽管由于潜在的“生态谬误”，许多作者反对从生态数据推断个人水平的暴露与疾病关系，但来自不同人群的数据的可用性促进了这种快速而廉价的研究设计的继续使用。在生态学研究中，群体的暴露状况通常由暴露的个体比例来定义。在这些研究中，对个体的非差异暴露错误分类表明，当生态学推导的比率比率应用于个体时，会产生对暴露与疾病关联的高估。这种高估与在个人水平上进行的流行病学研究中对二元暴露的非差异错误分类造成的零偏倚形成对比。考虑到非差异暴露错误分类和其他来源的潜在偏差的程度，从生态数据中对个人水平比率的定量估计应该非常谨慎地解释。
Although many authors have argued against inferring individual-level exposure-disease relations from ecologic data because of the potential "ecological fallacy", the availability of data from diverse populations promotes the continued use of this rapid and inexpensive study design. In ecologic studies, the exposure status of groups is often defined by the proportion of individuals exposed. In these studies, nondifferential exposure misclassification of individuals is shown to produce overestimation of exposure-disease associations that may be extreme when the ecologically derived rate ratios are applied to individuals. This overestimation contrasts with bias toward the null resulting from nondifferential misclassification of a binary exposure in epidemiologic studies conducted at the individual level. Given the magnitude of the potential bias from nondifferential exposure misclassification and other sources, quantitative estimates of individual-level rate ratios from ecologic data should be interpreted with extreme caution.