השוואת שיטות

	מחקר אקולוגי רב-מרכזי	מחקר מקרה-ביקורת
תחום	אפידמיולוגיה	אפידמיולוגיה
משפחה	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
שנת המקור	1980s–1990s (formal methodological description)	1950s (formal methodology); precursors in the 1920s
הוגה השיטה	Epidemiological tradition; methodologically articulated by Morgenstern (1982) and Susser (1994)	Janet Lane-Claypon (early precursors, 1926); formalized by Brian MacMahon and Jerome Cornfield in the 1950s–1960s
סוג	Observational epidemiological study design	Observational analytic study design
מקור מכונן	Morgenstern, H. (1982). Uses of ecologic analysis in epidemiologic research. American Journal of Public Health, 72(12), 1336–1344.	Schlesselman, J.J. (1982). Case-Control Studies: Design, Conduct, Analysis. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0195027860
כינויים	multi-site ecological study, multinational ecological study, pooled ecological analysis, multicenter aggregate study	case-referent study, case-control design, retrospective case-control, case-control analysis
קשורות	6	6
תקציר	A multicenter ecological study is an observational epidemiological design in which the units of analysis are groups — such as cities, regions, or countries — rather than individuals, and data are pooled from two or more distinct centers or geographic areas. The approach links aggregate exposure measures (e.g., average pollution levels, vaccination coverage rates) to aggregate outcome rates (e.g., disease incidence per 100,000) across multiple populations, enabling comparisons that would be infeasible within any single site.	A case-control study is a retrospective observational design in which individuals who have developed a disease or outcome of interest (cases) are compared with individuals who have not (controls) to determine whether prior exposure to a putative risk factor differs between the two groups. The primary measure of association is the odds ratio, which approximates the relative risk when the outcome is rare. Case-control studies are especially efficient for investigating rare diseases and generating etiological hypotheses.