Data from Veterinarians | Insurance Data

VetCompass
VetCompass describes a philosophy whereby the cumulative veterinary clinical experience is harnessed to improve companion animal welfare. To fulfil the VetCompass philosophy, the VetCompass Programme has been developed at the Royal Veterinary College in conjunction with the University of Sydney as a not-for-profit collaborative programme where veterinary clinical information is shared, analysed and disseminated to develop an evidence base to improve the health and welfare of companion animals.

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Insurance Data for Research in Companion Animals: Benefits and Limitations is a review article from Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:42 doi:10.1186/1751-0147-51-42 (Open Access, by A. Egenvall, A. Nødtvedt, J. Penell, L. Gunnarsson,and B.N. Bonnett). It covers the use and usefulness of animal health and life insurance data for population-based research. Agria Animal Insurance, Sweden, a Founding Partner of IPFD, through their Agria-Swedish Kennel Club Research Fund has a long history of supporting such research on dogs. The article also discusses other sources of population data, e.g. registries, clinic data, etc. highlighting benefits and limitations. In the Downloads section of DogWellNet are numerous Swedish Insurance Data files for various breeds.   As discussed in the review article, every data source comes with limitations in terms of the population it represents, the data that have been collected, their quality and validity, as well as other issues of methodology, analysis and reporting. To find the best evidence to support our understanding of health and disease in dogs and to find the best quantitative evidence, it is necessary to examine various sources of data, critically, and then collate and compile information from various sources to get as complete a picture as possible.  

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SHOOP, S., MARLOW, S., CHURCH, D., ENGLISH, K., MCGREEVY, P., STELL, A., THOMSON, P., O'NEILL, D. & BRODBELT, D. 2015. Prevalence and risk factors for mast cell tumours in dogs in England. Canine Genetics and Epidemiology, 2, 1.  
Mast cell tumour (MCT) appears to be a frequent tumour type in dogs, though there is little published in relation to its frequency in dogs in the UK. The current study aimed to investigate prevalence and risk factors for MCTs in dogs attending English primary-care veterinary practices.
Electronic patient records from practices participating in the VetCompass animal surveillance project between July 2007 and June 2013 were searched for MCT diagnosis and MCT prevalence for the entire dataset and specific breed types were calculated. Descriptive statistics characterised MCT cases and multivariable logistic regression methods evaluated risk factors for association with MCT.
This study highlights a clinically significant prevalence of MCT and identifies specific breed types with predisposition to MCT, potentially aiding veterinarian awareness and facilitating diagnosis.  

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O'NEILL, D. G., ELLIOTT, J., CHURCH, D. B., MCGREEVY, P. D., THOMSON, P. C. & BRODBELT, D. C. 2013. Chronic kidney disease in dogs in UK veterinary practices: prevalence, risk factors, and survival. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 27, 814-821.   This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and identify risk factors associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) diagnosis and survival in dogs. Significant risk factors included increasing age, being insured, and certain breeds. Cardiac disease was a significant comorbid disorder. Significant clinical signs included halitosis, weight loss, polyuria/polydipsia, urinary incontinence, vomiting, decreased appetite, lethargy, and diarrhoea. Increased awareness of CKD risk factors and association of blood biochemistry results with survival time should facilitate diagnosis and optimize case management to improve animal survival and welfare.  

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O'NEILL, D. G., CHURCH, D. B., MCGREEVY, P. D., THOMSON, P. C. & BRODBELT, D. C. 2014. Prevalence of disorders recorded in dogs attending primary-care veterinary practices in England. PLoS ONE, 9, 1-16.   Abstract
Purebred dog health is thought to be compromised by an increasing occurrence of inherited diseases but inadequate prevalence data on common disorders have hampered efforts to prioritise health reforms. Analysis of primary veterinary practice clinical data has been proposed for reliable estimation of disorder prevalence in dogs.  

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MATTIN, M. J., BOSWOOD, A., CHURCH, D. B., LÓPEZ-ALVAREZ, J., MCGREEVY, P. D., O'NEILL, D. G., THOMSON, P. C. & BRODBELT, D. C. 2015. Prevalence of and risk factors for degenerative mitral valve disease in dogs attending primary-care veterinary practices in England. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, n/a-n/a.   To date, epidemiological studies on degenerative mitral valve disease (DMVD) in dogs have largely reported referral caseloads or been limited to predisposed breeds. Analysis of primary-care data to identify factors associated with DMVD would help clinicians identify high-risk individuals and improve understanding. Objectives To estimate the prevalence of and identify risk factors for DMVD in dogs attending primary-care veterinary practices in England. Animals Cases were identified within the electronic patient records of 111,967 dogs attending 93 practices. Four hundred and 5 dogs were diagnosed with DMVD (diagnosed cases) and a further 3,557 dogs had a heart murmur (HM) consistent with DMVD (possible cases). Methods Retrospective cross-sectional study design. Prevalence was adjusted for the sampling approach. Mixed effects logistic regression models identified factors associated with DMVD. Results Prevalence estimates of diagnosed DMVD and HMs consistent with DMVD (both diagnosed and possible cases) were 0.36% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.29–0.45) and 3.54% (95% CI: 3.26–3.84) respectively. In the multivariable analysis, males had higher odds of diagnosed DMVD than did females (odds ratio [OR] 1.40, 95% CI: 1.12–1.74). Insured dogs had increased odds of DMVD compared with noninsured dogs (OR 3.56, 95% CI: 2.79–4.55) and dogs ≥20 kg had approximately half the odds of DMVD diagnosis compared with dogs <20 kg (OR 0.51, 95% CI: 0.36–0.74). Strong associations between a DMVD diagnosis and individual breeds and age were identified. Conclusions and Clinical Importance Degenerative mitral valve disease was a common disorder in practice-attending dogs. Knowledge of identified risk factors for DMVD could improve clinical diagnosis and direct future research.  

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Many publications have come from the database of Agria Djurförsäkring (Animal Insurance) in Sweden.
This article is a brief overview of findings, from the perspective of both health and longevity and in regard to human-animal interaction issues.   Age Patterns of Disease and Death in Swedish Dogs, Cats and Horses
J. Comp. Path. 2010, Vol. 142, S33-S38   Summary
From 1995 to the present Agria Animal Insurance, Sweden (Agria Djurförsäkring, Stockholm, Sweden) has
provided data on both health care and life insurance claims for descriptive and analytical research. From these
data we have published extensively on insured dogs and horses and have recently submitted a study on cat mortality.

KEARSLEY-FLEET, L., O'NEILL, D. G., VOLK, H. A., CHURCH, D. B. & BRODBELT, D. C. 2013. Prevalence and risk factors for canine epilepsy of unknown origin in the UK. Veterinary Record, 172, 338.   Epidemiological evaluation of canine epilepsy is an under-researched area. The objectives of this study were to estimate prevalence and investigate risk factors for epilepsy of unknown origin (EUO) among dogs attending primary veterinary practices in the UK. The current study highlights the clinical importance of epilepsy as a canine disorder in the UK. Increased awareness of sex and breed predispositions may assist clinicians with diagnosis. Further research is merited to evaluate the specific breed associations identified.  

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Vincent Mayousse^1,3,5*, Loïc Desquilbet², Aurélien Jeandel1,⁴ and Stéphane Blot^1,3,5 Mayousse et al. BMC Veterinary Research (2017) 13:212
DOI 10.1186/s12917-017-1132-2 Available online at Biomed Central: https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-017-1132-2

• Prevalence of neurological disorders in French bulldog: a retrospective study of 343 cases (2002–2016)

Abstract
Background: French Bulldog (FB) has significantly gained in popularity over the last few years, and seems to be frequently affected by various neurological conditions. The purpose of this retrospective study was to report the prevalences of neurological diseases in a large population of FB, presented with neurological signs between 2002 and 2016, and for which a definitive diagnosis was established. A secondary objective was to identify epidemiological characteristics regarding specific diseases in this singular breed.  

The Pug is the fifth most commonly registered UK pedigree breed but has been reported to be predisposed to several disorders including ocular, respiratory and dermatological problems. This VetCompass Programme study characterises the demography and common disorders of the general population of Pugs under veterinary care in England.   The complete paper is freely available Open Access at Canine Genetics and Epidemiology.

The VetCompass programme shares health data on hundreds of thousands of dogs visiting veterinary practices in the UK. These data were analysed to extract information on the most common disorders in dogs. The VetCompass interactive canine health infographic enables users to explore disorder occurrence in dogs overall and also broken down by body system and by body location.

The VetCompass programme collects detailed information on the demography of dogs visiting veterinary practices in the UK. These data on dogs have been used to generate a VetCompass interactive infographic map of the UK that allows users to query the demography of dogs by region.

O'NEILL, D. G., CHURCH, D. B., MCGREEVY, P. D., THOMSON, P. C. & BRODBELT, D. C. 2013. Longevity and mortality of owned dogs in England. The Veterinary Journal, 198, 638-643.

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090023313004486?via%3Dihub

Improved understanding of longevity represents a significant welfare opportunity for the domestic dog, given its unparalleled morphological diversity. Clinical health data from 102,609 owned dogs attending first opinion veterinary practices (n = 86) in England were analysed. The current findings highlight major breed differences for longevity and support the concept of hybrid vigour in dogs.  

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MATTIN, M., O'NEILL, D., CHURCH, D., MCGREEVY, P. D., THOMSON, P. C. & BRODBELT, D. 2014. An epidemiological study of diabetes mellitus in dogs attending first opinion practice in the UK. Veterinary Record, 174, 349.   This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of canine diabetes mellitus (DM) in primary-care clinics in England, to identify risk factors associated with DM and to describe the survival of affected dogs. This study provides an objective assessment of canine DM using primary-care veterinary practice data and is a valuable benchmark against which future epidemiological trends in DM can be assessed and improvements in the management of DM in primary-care practice can be judged.

Effective canine health surveillance systems can be used to monitor disease in the general population, prioritise disorders for strategic control and focus clinical research, and to evaluate the success of these measures. The key attributes for optimal data collection systems that support canine disease surveillance are representativeness of the general population, validity of disorder data and sustainability. Limitations in these areas present as selection bias, misclassification bias and discontinuation of the system respectively. Canine health data sources are reviewed to identify their strengths and weaknesses for supporting effective canine health surveillance. It is concluded that active collection systems using secondary health data provide the optimal resource for canine health surveillance.

Dystocia (difficulties in giving birth) frequently requires veterinary intervention.
Breed-specific characteristics can impact breeding and whelping ability;  dystocia occurs more commonly in some breeds of dogs than others.  Elective caesareans are not uncommon; neither are emergency caesareans, especially amongst large-headed/narrow-pelvic breeds and many toy breeds.
  A May 2017 paper, Canine dystocia in 50 UK first-opinion emergency-care veterinary practices: prevalence and risk factors (https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1136/vr.104108) published in the Veterinary Record provides evidence and insights.   (See more information on this latest VetCompass research below as well as an overview of BVA, BSAVA, RCVS and The Kennel Club's initiatives to gather evidence-based information to be used in creating welfare-conscious breed health management strategies.)    

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Conclusions: Patellar luxation warrants inclusion as a welfare priority in dogs and control strategies that include this disorder should be considered as worthwhile breeding goals, especially in predisposed breeds.  

French Bulldogs and more: Taking the temperature on brachycephalic health March 8, 2017

Bringing big data to bear on health concerns
"In 2013, Nationwide pet health insurance, then operating under the name of Veterinary Pet Insurance® or VPI®, decided to use its peerless database of pet health insurance claims to develop both medical and financial studies.
The goal was to produce analyses that would assist pet owners and members of the veterinary community in making sound decisions around pet health and the business of veterinary medicine."

  February 2023 Follow-up - from  Nationwide® Veterinary Analytics Information available as of February 15, 2023. Check out In the know about noses: Burrowing into brachycephalic dog breeds (Part 1) and In the know about noses: Burrowing into brachycephalic dog breeds (Part 2) "In Part 1 of our analysis on brachycephalic dog breeds, the Nationwide® Pet Health Analytics and Insights Team quantified the risk of diseases found in brachycephalic dogs compared to non-brachycephalic breeds. ... Part 2, goes a step further, revealing additional significant health problems in dogs with extreme brachycephalic conformation (French Bulldogs, English Bulldogs, and Pugs) that have had claims submitted for brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS)." "The goal of these Nationwide analyses is to provide pet families and veterinary healthcare teams with objective, data-informed personalized pet health guidance that will help lead to early disease recognition, appropriate interventions, and better health outcomes."      

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Canine Genetics and Epidemiology

• Demography and disorders of German Shepherd Dogs under primary veterinary care in the UK

Dan G. O’Neill, Noel R. Coulson, David B. Church and Dave C. Brodbelt

Canine Genetics and Epidemiology 2017, 4:7 | Published on: 28 July 2017       Conclusions
 

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  This study identified that GSDs have been reducing in numbers in the UK in recent years. The most frequent disorders in GSDs were otitis externa, osteoarthritis, diarrhoea, overweight/obesity and aggression, whilst the most common causes of death were musculoskeletal disorders and inability to stand. Aggression was more prevalent in males than in females. These results may assist veterinarians to offer evidence-based advice at a breed level and help to identify priorities for GSD health that can improve the breed’s health and welfare.  

 

Correlation of neuter status and expression of heritable disorders

Canine Genetics and Epidemiology (2018) O'Neill, D G and Baral, L and Church, D B and Brodbelt, D C and Packer, R M A (2018)

• Demography and disorders of the French Bulldog population under primary veterinary care in the UK in 2013. Canine Genetics and Epidemiology, 5 (3).