Abstract
Analyses of disease maps frequently require the use of an ecological approach, partially because aggregates of cases allow such measures as rates to be computed. In addition, group averages of individual measures often are more readily available, tend to reduce impacts of measurement error, and help to preserve the confidentiality of individuals in each aggregation group. Given this context, the resulting problematic issue concerns drawing sound inferences about individuals from such grouped data. The general drawback to this type of inference is known as the ecological fallacy: most often a difference exists between an ecological regression and the regression based upon individuals underlying it (i.e., aggregate-level relationships do not necessarily hold at the individual level).
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- 1.
The semivariance is one half of the squared difference between the values of an attribute at two locations. A scatterplot is constructed between these values and the distance separating the two locations. A semivariogram model (e.g., penta-spherical, spherical, circular) describes the nonlinear trend line for this scatterplot.
- 2.
This vector almost always is denoted by 1 in the spatial statistics literature.
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Griffith, D.A., Paelinck, J.H. (2011). Individual Versus Ecological Analyses. In: Non-standard Spatial Statistics and Spatial Econometrics. Advances in Geographic Information Science, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16043-1_2
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