Critics are no less prone to this fallacy.
Therefore, our findings are probably not prone to ecological fallacy.
In epidemiological term, such approaches are prone to ecological fallacy, i.e. area-level aggregate results do not necessary mean that relationships hold at the individual level.
Fifth, like any meta-analysis, the results of the current investigation may be prone to ecological fallacy and/or Simpson's Paradox [ 77].
However, further evidence is needed to corroborate the findings, as ecological studies are prone to ecological fallacy and other errors, and are often used to generate hypotheses for additional investigation employing more rigorous methods.
This may have been due to the absence of variation among Carstairs scores among this study population, suggesting that this measure is prone to the ecological fallacy.
The use of paternal occupation as an indicator of SES is another strength of the study, as this measure is not prone to the ecological fallacy.
Ninth, like any meta-analysis, the results of the current investigation may be prone to both ecological fallacy and/or Simpson's Paradox [ 80].
The main results of the study are prone to the "ecological fallacy", i.e. some unmeasured individual characteristics, or other influential ecological confounders may be the actual determinants of the association found between rehabilitation patterns and mortality.
Analyses reporting associations between area-based deprivation scores and individual health outcome are prone to the ecological fallacy [ 6], and the use of area methods is less justifiable where individual measures of socio-economic status are available [ 28].
