The natural progression of a disease greatly defines the relationship between incidence and prevalence. Diseases that have a high rate of spontaneous resolution will result in high incidence of disease but possibly low prevalence as the disease will be resolved in many of the patients depending on the period of time being evaluated. Likewise, in diseases that have low cure rates but have treatments that provide prolonged survival rates, the incidence will contribute to a continuous growth of the prevalence.
2.3.5 Why is Incidence So Much Harder to Determine?
Incidence is defined by the population at risk of developing a disease. In human medicine there is often stringent monitoring and reporting of disease, so the at‐risk population is able to be defined. Therefore, the value of incidence data is directly related to the accuracy of disease diagnosis and its subsequent reporting. While there are reporting requirements for certain disease processes in veterinary medicine that have a potentially high impact on public health, many of these cases can be misdiagnosed or fail to be reported. Furthermore, diseases outside the reportable conditions do not have any requirement for monitoring and the at‐risk patient population is even more difficult to define.
The incidence of a disease is a variable that is constantly in flux. It is affected by numerous factors, such as changes in the environment of the investigated population and improvements in preventive measures to prevent the occurrence of disease. Defining incidence as a rate, rather than pure incidence, allows for this context to be taken into consideration. This approach, however, also makes the assumption that disease occurrence is evenly distributed over that period of time, which is not necessarily an accurate reflection of the true disease occurrence.
It is also not always appropriate to report the incidence of untreated cases, as the actual determination of this rate is often difficult to achieve. This would require the differentiation of new and old cases of disease and whether an individual is from the at‐risk population. It is generally more appropriate to report the number of new cases that are treated as this is a known number.
2.3.6 When/Why Do We Really Need Incidence?
In general, when studying disease, it is ideal to investigate incidence rate as it is not affected by extraneous factors related to the disease, such as the type of care a patient receives or the disease's fatality rate. This removal of influence makes it easier to compare different patient populations and be able to define differences. Incidence is also more valuable when evaluating diseases that occur over short periods of time. Prevalence does not account for the number of survivors and deaths, and therefore can underestimate the severity of the issue.
2.3.7 Always Prevalence in Veterinary Medicine
Since the calculation of prevalence does not require determination of the at‐risk population, it is more commonly used in veterinary medicine. It does allow for more variability in outcomes due to extraneous factors, which can complicate the interpretation of the prevalence data collected. Prevalence, however, is more useful in determining the weight of chronic diseases, whereas incidence is solely focused on new cases of disease.
Hemangiosarcoma is an aggressive form of cancer that is most commonly encountered in German shepherd dogs, Labrador retrievers, and golden retrievers. There are an estimated 75 000 cases of hemangiosarcoma diagnosed in dogs in the US per year. There are around 78 million dogs in the US, with the breeds most commonly affected by hemangiosarcoma representing around 20% of these (15.6 million). The incidence rate would be defined as the number of new cases per year (75 000) divided by the at‐risk population per unit time (15.6 million/year), which would give an incidence rate of 0.005. Most dogs with hemangiosarcoma succumb to their disease within 6–12 months of being diagnosed, depending on the treatment that is pursued. Looking at a one‐year period, you can make the assumption that around one quarter of hemangiosarcoma cases from the previous year will still be alive (18 750). Add this to the number of new cases that will be diagnosed that year (75 000 + 18 750 = 93 750). If this was to be defined based on the total population, the prevalence would be 0.001.
Epidemiology is the study of disease in a population for the purposes of disease control as well as to define the market for the development and commercialization of diagnostics and therapeutics for that disease process.
Prevalence is defined by the number of individuals alive with a given disease, while incidence is the number of newly diagnosed cases of disease divided by the population at risk of developing that disease.
Incidence is difficult to accurately determine as it overlooks the potential for unreported disease events and misdiagnosed disease, and assumes that new cases of disease occur at a steady rate over a given period of time.
Prevalence is more commonly utilized in veterinary medicine as it does not require defining the population that is at risk of developing that disease.
Prevalence is preferred for the evaluation of chronic disease conditions as it does not account for survivors and deaths, which are important for the evaluation of shorter term impacts of disease.
Recommended Reading
1 Noah, D. L., & Ostrowski, S. R. Basic Principles of Epidemiology. www.merckvetmanual.com/public‐health/public‐health‐primer/basic‐principles‐of‐epidemiology
2 Perez, A.M. (2015). Past, present, and future of veterinary epidemiology and economics: one health, many challenges, no silver bullets. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2: 60.
3 Stevenson, M. (2008). An Introduction to Veterinary Epidemiology. www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Colleges/College%20of%20Sciences/Epicenter/docs/ASVCS/Stevenson_intro_epidemiology‐web_2008.pdf
4 Thrusfield, M. (2013). Veterinary Epidemiology. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley.
2.4 Checklists in Veterinary Practice
Ryane E. Englar, DVM, DABVP (Canine and Feline Practice)
College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Arizona, Oro Valley, AZ, USA
2.4.1 Summary
When medical teams fail today, it is less often