Neumark Yehuda
Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 1227, 99112102, Jerusalem, Israel.
Isr J Health Policy Res. 2017 Oct 2;6(1):52. doi: 10.1186/s13584-017-0176-x.
Using an ecological study design, Gordon et al. (Isr J Health Policy Res 6:39, 2017) demonstrate variations in mortality patterns across districts and sub-districts of Israel during 2008-2013. Unlike other epidemiological study designs, the units of analysis in ecological studies are groups of people, often defined geographically, and the exposures and outcomes are aggregated, and often known only at the population-level. The ecologic study has several appealing characteristics (such as reliance on public-domain anonymous data) alongside a number of important potential limitations including the often mentioned 'ecological fallacy'. Advantages and disadvantages of the ecological design are described briefly below.
采用生态研究设计，戈登等人（《以色列卫生政策研究杂志》，2017年，第6卷：39）证明了2008 - 2013年期间以色列各地区和次区域死亡率模式的差异。与其他流行病学研究设计不同，生态研究中的分析单位是人群组，通常按地理位置定义，暴露因素和结果是汇总的，而且往往仅在人群层面已知。生态研究有几个吸引人的特点（如依赖公共领域的匿名数据），同时也有一些重要的潜在局限性，包括经常提到的“生态谬误”。生态设计的优缺点简述如下。
