Introduction: Study Design of Epidemiology

Abstract

High-level clinical research in small animal medicine remains limited compared with human medicine, contributing to stagnation in the advancement of clinical practice standards. This introduction outlines which study designs are considered superior, together with an overview of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM).

The highest level of evidence is provided by systematic reviews, which integrate multiple research outcomes using standardized methods. Among individual studies, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are regarded as the most robust interventional design. They are followed by observational studies, with prospectively conducted cohort studies offering greater validity than retrospectively designed case-control studies. In the absence of such evidence, clinicians may rely on case reports describing actual patients, expert opinions, or experimental findings from laboratory animals or cellular models.

Achieving studies at higher levels of the evidence hierarchy requires close collaboration between epidemiologists and clinical researchers. To encourage such partnerships, this symposium introduces recent research initiatives in the field of small animal practice.