Table 2.
Descriptive characteristics of 200 observational studies in veterinary species published between 2000 and March 31, 2022, used in an evaluation of the use of causal wording.
| Variable | Number of studies |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | |
| 2020 | 82 |
| 2021 | 82 |
| 2022 | 36 |
| Species or commodity groupa | |
| Canine | 64 |
| Feline | 17 |
| Equine | 26 |
| Poultry (chicken) | 8 |
| Bovine—dairy | 39 |
| Bovine—beef or veal | 11 |
| Bovine—use not specified | 18 |
| Porcine | 10 |
| Ovine | 27 |
| Caprine | 19 |
| Types of exposure(s) evaluateda | |
| Interventions | 145 |
| Time-varying risk factor | 179 |
| Time-invariant risk factor | 157 |
| Observational study design | |
| Cross-sectional | 117 |
| Case-control | 20 |
| Cohort | 63 |
| Statistically significant findings described in title or abstract | |
| Yes | 187 |
| No | 13 |
| One or more defined exposure: outcome pairs of interest | |
| Yes | 48 |
| No | 152 |
| Presented a directed acyclic graph or causal diagram | |
| Yes | 5 |
| No | 195 |
a
Multiple selections per article were possible; therefore, total number may sum to more than the total number of studies included (200).