Explanation and Elaboration Document for the STROBE-Vet Statement: Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology - Veterinary Extension.

Zoonoses Public Health. 2016 Nov 22. doi: 10.1111/zph.12315. [Epub ahead of print]

O'Connor AM¹, Sargeant JM^2,3, Dohoo IR⁴, Erb HN⁵, Cevallos M⁶, Egger M⁶, Ersbøll AK⁷, Martin SW³, Nielsen LR⁸, Pearl DL³, Pfeiffer DU⁹, Sanchez J¹⁰, Torrence ME¹¹, Vigre H¹², Waldner C¹³, Ward MP¹⁴.

Author information

• ¹Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
• ²Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
• ³Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph, ON, Canada.
• ⁴Centre for Veterinary Epidemiological Research, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada.
• ⁵Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
• ⁶Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
• ⁷National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• ⁸Section for Animal Welfare and Disease Control, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• ⁹Department of Production and Population Health, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK.
• ¹⁰Department of Health Management, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada.
• ¹¹Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, College Park, MD, USA.
• ¹²National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
• ¹³Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
• ¹⁴Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

The STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) statement was first published in 2007 and again in 2014. The purpose of the original STROBE was to provide guidance for authors, reviewers and editors to improve the comprehensiveness of reporting; however, STROBE has a unique focus on observational studies. Although much of the guidance provided by the original STROBE document is directly applicable, it was deemed useful to map those statements to veterinary concepts, provide veterinary examples and highlight unique aspects of reporting in veterinary observational studies. Here, we present the examples and explanations for the checklist items included in the STROBE-Vet Statement. Thus, this is a companion document to the STROBE-Vet Statement Methods and process document, which describes the checklist and how it was developed.

© 2016 The Authors. Zoonoses and Public Health published by Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

KEYWORDS:

Case control study; cohort study; cross-sectional study; observational study; reporting guidelines