American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 139, No. 8: 747-760
Copyright © 1994 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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Invited Commentary: Ecologic Studies—Biases, Misconceptions, and Counterexamples
1Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health Los Angeles, CA
2Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Haward School of Public Health Boston, MA
Correspondence to Dr. Sander Greenland, 1720 Tuna Canyon Rd., Topanga, CA 90290
Many authors have pointed out that relative-risk estimates derived from ecologic data are vulnerable to biases not found in estimates derived from individual-level data. Nevertheless, biases in ecologic studies still are often dealt with in the same manner as biases in other observational studies, and so are not given adequate treatment. This commentary reviews and illustrates some of the more recent findings abut bias in ecologic estimates. Special attention is given to problems of ecologic confounder control when individual risks follow a nonlinear model, and to misconceptions about ecologic bias that have appeared in the literature. Am J Epidemiol 1994;139:747-60.
bias (epidemiology); biometry; epidemiologic methods; models, statistical; risk; statistics
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