Revisiting ecological fallacy: are single-case experimental study designs even more relevant in the era of precision medicine?

Author contributions

Theodoros Christophides (Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing), and Maria Karekla (Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing—review & editing).

Conflict of interest

None declared.

References

[1] Robinson WS. Ecological correlations and the behaviour of individuals. Am Sociol Rev 1950;15:351-7. https://doi.org/10.2307/2087176

[2] Subramanian SV, Jones K, Kaddour A et al. Revisiting Robinson: The perils of individualistic and ecologic fallacy. Int J Epidemiol 2009;38:342-60. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyn359

[3] Cook CE, Thigpen CA. Five good reasons to be disappointed with randomized trials. Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy 2019;27:63-5. https://doi.org/10.1080/10669817.2019.1589697

[4] Attar A. Response to statin therapy in the real world. Eur J Prev Cardiol 2021;28:e25-6. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487320905718

[5] Epstein LH, Dallery J. The family of single-case experimental designs. Harvard Data Science Review 2022;4:S13. https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.ff9300a8

[6] Howard JP, Wood FA, Francis DP. Why do I get side effects? Personalized (N-of-1) trials for statin intolerance and the nocebo effect. Harvard Data Science Review 2022; 2022: 10.1162/99608f92.abc57f1b. https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.abc57f1b

[7] Finegold JA, Manisty CH, Goldacre B et al. What proportion of symptomatic side effects in patients taking statins are genuinely caused by the drug? Systematic review of randomized placebo-controlled trials to aid individual patient choice. Eur J Prev Cardiol 2014;21:464-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487314525531

[8] Herrett E, Williamson E, Brack K et al. Statin treatment and muscle symptoms: Series of randomised, placebo controlled N-of-1 trials. BMJ 2021;372:n135. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n135

[9] Howard JP, Wood FA, Finegold JA et al. Side effect patterns in a crossover trial of statin, placebo, and no treatment. J Am Coll Cardiol 2021;78:1210-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JACC.2021.07.022

[10] Kratochwill TR, Horner RH, Levin JR et al. Single-case intervention research design standards: Additional proposed upgrades and future directions. Journal of School Psychology 2023;97:192216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2022.12.002