This e-book introduces clinical epidemiology as the framework that underpins how we generate the evidence needed to support decision-making in clinical practice. It focuses on how research is designed and analysed to answer practical questions such as how common a disease is, what factors increase risk, how accurately we can diagnose it, which interventions are most effective, and how to monitor whether those interventions are working in real-world settings. By linking core epidemiological concepts to clinical and animal health decisions, the book supports readers to both interpret existing evidence and design studies that produce information that is relevant, reliable, and actionable.
Learn how evidence-based medicine supports clinical decision-making by integrating research evidence, clinical expertise, and patient context. This section introduces how questions from practice are translated into research and how evidence is used to guide care.
Understand how we measure how common disease is in animal populations using concepts such as prevalence, incidence, risk, and rates. This section explains what each measure tells us and when each is most useful for clinical and population-level decisions.
Learn how associations between exposures, risk factors, or interventions and disease outcomes are quantified using measures such as risk ratios, rate ratios, prevalence ratios, and odds ratios. This section explains what these measures represent and when each is appropriate for different study designs and clinical questions.
Explore how diagnostic tests are evaluated and interpreted in practice. Learn how sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and prevalence influence test performance and how test results relate to an animal’s true disease status.
Learn how different study designs are used to answer different clinical and epidemiological questions. This section explains how studies are structured, what information they can provide, and the strengths and limitations of each design.
Develop skills to recognise random error, bias, and confounding in research studies. This section focuses on how these issues arise, how they affect results, and how they can influence conclusions drawn for clinical practice.
Advancing Animal Care through Shared Learning