Approaches to canine health surveillance

O’Neill, Dan G; Church, David B; McGreevy, Paul D; Thomson, Peter C; Brodbelt, Dave C

doi:10.1186/2052-6687-1-2

Canine Medicine and Genetics

Table 3 Advantages and limitations to data sources used for health surveillance in dogs

From: Approaches to canine health surveillance

Data source	Advantages	Limitations	Applications
Pet insurance databases	Large size	Difficult to validate	Agria Pet Insurance data analysis in Sweden [15]
	Defined denominator	Questionable representativeness of the general population	Pet Protect insurance data analysis in UK [58, 69]
	High reliability for breed and sex	Loss of data on low-cost or excluded disorders
	Coded diagnoses	Loss of data on low-cost or excluded disorders
Referral practice clinical records	Good diagnostic reliability?	Referral bias	Veterinary Medical Data Base (VMDB) [75]
	Coded diagnoses?	Poorly defined denominator
	Large databases	Poorly representative
Primary-care practice clinical records	Large databases	Diagnostic reliability?	Banfield Pet Hospital [104]
	Highly representative?	Technical complexities	NCAS [5]
	Coded diagnoses	Only events with veterinary care	NCASP [116]
	Defined denominator		VetCompass [47]
	Generalisability		SAVSNET [129]
	Generalisability		CEVM [130]
Veterinary cancer registries	Human registries common	Referral bias	Veterinary Medical Data Base (VMDB) [75]
	Good diagnostic reliability	Poorly defined denominator	Danish Veterinary Cancer Registry [137].
	Good diagnostic reliability	Poorly representative	Danish Veterinary Cancer Registry [137].
Questionnaire-based data collection	Relatively inexpensive	Response rate	The KC/BSAVA UK health survey of purebred dogs [148].
	Flexible	Difficult to validate
	Can nest within other study designs	Loss of information on temporality
Canine health schemes	Large databases	Poorly representative	BVA/KC hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia scheme [194]
	Diagnostic reliability	Selection bias	BVA/KC elbow dysplasia scheme [195]
	Linkage to KC pedigree data		The BVA/KC/ISDS eye scheme [172].
	Permanent animal identification		The BVA/KC/ISDS eye scheme [172].
Other companion animal surveillance systems in the UK	Relatively inexpensive	Under-reporting	SARSS [176]
		Poorly defined denominator
		Selection bias	DACTARI [186]
		Poor generalisability	CICADA [189]

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ISSN: 2662-9380

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