Solving the formula (part two): check your calculations

After you finish the calculations, it is time to check your results and to interpret them.

Jakob Zinsstag demonstrates how to read the results in the theoretical framework of One Health. With these matrix models, veterinarians calculate the population of animals and estimate how many are lost due to diseases.

For example if you want to know how much a population is growing within a year (eg year 2), you can calculate the growth rate (Eigenvalue) of a population. If the Eigenvalue is less than ‘1’, the total population will decline; if it is higher than ‘1’, it will grow. In our case, the Eigenvalue of year 2 is 1.0635514. This indicates that the population grows with a percentage of 6.36 %.