Three Criteria for Ecological Fallacy

Abstract

In a large cohort study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, Brenner et al. (2011) confirmed previous results on I­131 exposure thyroid cancer among a Ukranian population. According to the authors, one motivation to study this associa tion was based on evidence from ecological studies (Jacob et al. 1999) with two methodo logical limitations: use of grouped doses poor control of confounding. With these new findings, evidence from ecological, case–control, cohort studies are consistent; thus, an interesting question is whether there was an ecological fallacy.