A higher risk of being lame was found for the presence of claw overgrowth , the first 120 days in milk , larger herd sizes , and increasing parity .
Background Lameness in dairy cows has been an ongoing concern of great relevance to animal welfare and productivity in modern dairy production .
Many studies have examined associations between various factors related to housing , management , and the individual animal and the occurrence of lameness .
The objective of this systematic review was to answer the research question “ what are risk factors associated with lameness in dairy cows that are housed in free stall barns or tie stall facilities ” .
Furthermore , we performed a synthesis of current evidence on certain risk factors by means of a meta- analysis to illustrate the strength of their association with bovine lameness .
The risk of bias in observational studies of exposures (ROBINS-E) tool: concerns arising from application to observational studies of exposures
Background Systematic review s , which assess the risk of bias in included studies , are increasingly used to develop environmental hazard assessment s and public health guidelines . These research areas typically rely on evidence from human observational studies of exposures , yet there are currently no universally accepted st and ards for assessing risk of bias in such studies . The risk of bias in non-r and omised studies of exposures ( ROBINS-E ) tool has been developed by building upon tools for risk of bias assessment of r and omised trials , diagnostic test accuracy studies and observational studies of interventions . This paper reports our experience with the application of the ROBINS-E tool . Methods We applied ROBINS-E to 74 exposure studies ( 60 cohort studies , 14 case-control studies ) in 3 areas : environmental risk , dietary exposure and drug harm . All investigators provided written feedback , and we documented verbal discussion of the tool . We inductively and iteratively classified the feedback into 7 themes based on commonalities and differences until all the feedback was accounted for in the themes . We present a description of each theme . Results We identified practical concerns with the premise that ROBINS-E is a structured comparison of the observational study being rated to the ‘ ideal ’ r and omised controlled trial . ROBINS-E assesses 7 domains of bias , but relevant questions related to some critical sources of bias , such as exposure and funding source , are not assessed . ROBINS-E fails to discriminate between studies with a single risk of bias or multiple risks of bias .  ROBINS-E is severely limited at determining whether confounders will bias study outcomes . The construct of co-exposures was difficult to distinguish from confounders . Applying ROBINS-E was time-consuming and confusing . Conclusions Our experience suggests that the ROBINS-E tool does not meet the need for an international st and ard for evaluating human observational studies for questions of harm relevant to public and environmental health . We propose that a simpler tool , based on empirical evidence of bias , would provide accurate measures of risk of bias and is more likely to meet the needs of the environmental and public health community
A higher risk of being lame was found for the presence of claw overgrowth , the first 120 days in milk , larger herd sizes , and increasing parity .
Background Lameness in dairy cows has been an ongoing concern of great relevance to animal welfare and productivity in modern dairy production .
Many studies have examined associations between various factors related to housing , management , and the individual animal and the occurrence of lameness .
The objective of this systematic review was to answer the research question “ what are risk factors associated with lameness in dairy cows that are housed in free stall barns or tie stall facilities ” .
Furthermore , we performed a synthesis of current evidence on certain risk factors by means of a meta- analysis to illustrate the strength of their association with bovine lameness .