Magical Metrics And Dazzling Data: Medical Fact-finding Can Guide Shelters

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2. Generally speaking, the most useful medical metric in a shelter is:

A count of the number of disease cases for a specified period of time.

An incidence proportion of diseased animals for a specified period of time.

A point prevalence of disease.

Mortality proportion of diseased animals for a specified period of time

3. Disease surveillance in a shelter population is important because:

It establishes a baseline disease frequency against which outbreaks can be identified.

It is necessary to track trends in disease incidence in the shelter.

It enables evaluation of the effect of changes in protocols on disease incidence.

All of the above.

4. Identification of groups of animals at high risk of developing disease is important because:

Protocols may be adjusted to reduce their risk.

Potential surrenders may be realistically cautioned about the welfare of the animals they surrender.

High risk animals may be preferentially placed in foster care.

All of the above.

5. Identify the statement below that is NOT true:

Collection and monitoring of medical data in shelters can improve individual animal health.

Data suggests that the length of stay in a shelter affects the likelihood that an animal will become sick.

Shelter veterinarians must have a course in statistics to utilize their shelter's medical data to improve animal health.

Most shelters under-utilize their medical data.

6. The quality of medical data collected in a shelter is unlikely to be affect by:

Training of medical staff in data collection.

The ratio of cats to dogs entering the shelter.

The value placed by the shelter on data collection.

The number of people entering medical data into the computer.

7. Potential pitfalls to the interpretation of medical data in a shelter include:

Lack of standardized definitions of factors (e.g., age, breed) or diseases.

Lack of computer access in the medical area(s).

Failure to evaluate disease incidence in various subgroups.

All of the above.

8. Incidence measures of disease are characterized by:

The number of new disease cases divided by the population at risk during a defined time period.

The number of disease cases divided by the population at risk during a defined time period.

The number of disease cases divided by the population at risk at a specific point in time.

The number of animals dying of a disease divided by the population at risk during a defined time period.

9. Using the SMART goal-setting paradigm, health-related goals should be:

Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based.

Specific, modifiable, attainable, realistic and timely.

Sensible, modifiable, actionable, realistic and time-based.

Sensible, measurable, actionable, relevant and timely.

10. When deciding on whether to screen for feline leukemia or feline immunodeficiency virus infections, the medically-related metric of most concern is:

The mortality from FeLV or FIV in cats in the community.

The prevalence of FeLV or FIV in cats entering the shelter.

The incidence of FeLV or FIV in cats entering the shelter.

The case-fatality rate from FeLV or FIV among cats in the shelter.

11. Name the factors that almost always influence disease frequency in a population and that should be used to subset disease-related data?

Species, age group, source (owner-surrender, stray, other).

Species, breed, source.

Species, time (e.g., season), age group.

Species, location in shelter, age group.