Validation and preliminary data from a health-related quality of life questionnaire for owners of dogs with cardiac disease

Life with pets study: lower income veterinary clients' perception of pets' quality of life

Perception of quality of life for cats and dogs of low-income Spanish and English-speaking veterinary clients attending problem focused or routine veterinary visits is an important area of focus for community based veterinary service providers. Using a qualitative approach, 50 New York City based American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) veterinary clients completed semi-structured interviews as well as a survey about their perception of life with their pets. Veterinary clients shared both human-animal bond (HAB) related and quality of life (QoL) related factors in their daily experience of life with their pets. Results indicated that this demographic perceives QoL similarly to previous QoL research that either does not report sample demographics or reports sample demographics with more affluence. Moreover, 60% of qualitative excerpts included both HAB and QoL themes and 40% were discretely HAB or QoL. An analog single item 10-point scale measuring veterinary client perception of their pets QoL did not differentiate between sample demographics at a statistically significant level. Finally, pet QoL literature has not traditionally reflected diverse demographic identities of veterinary clients or widely included reliable and valid measures of the human-animal bond (HAB). These results support the importance of measuring the HAB when researching pet QoL and provide evidence that lower-income Spanish and English-speaking veterinary clients are similarly bonded and attentive to their pets as other demographics.

Assessing the Quality of Life of Dogs with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Their Owners

The aim of the study was to assess the quality of life (QoL) of dogs with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the impact on the life and relationship of the owner. An online questionnaire based on a Likert scale score (1-10) was designed to assess items related to dog QoL, owner QoL, and the owner-dog relationship. Responses from 110 dog owners (30 with IBD and 80 healthy dogs) were included in the study. IBD dogs had significantly lower overall QoL (p < 0.001), health (p < 0.0001), and level of activity (p = 0.049). Owners of dogs with IBD reported lower overall QoL (p < 0.001). The scores for how their dog's QoL might affect their own QoL (p = 0.028), how much their dog limited their social life, leisure time, or daily activities (p = 0.015), and how often they felt burdened by caring for their dog (p = 0.006) were significantly higher in the IBD group when compared to the healthy group. In addition, IBD dog owners were more likely to see their dogs as children (p = 0.0004). IBD has a negative impact on affected dogs and their owners regardless of the severity of the disease.

Euthanasia and Pain in Canine Patients with Terminal and Chronic-Degenerative Diseases: Ethical and Legal Aspects

Euthanasia is commonly performed in veterinary medicine to humanely induce the death of an animal when its quality of life is affected by pain or chronic degenerative diseases. The choice of euthanasia is a bilateral decision that represents a challenge for both the veterinarian and the owner of the animal due to the close emotional human-animal bond. Currently, there is legislation that can orient veterinarians concerning euthanasia and the causes that would justify this resolution. However, it is still controversial, and deciding it as the last available resort requires considering it from a medical, legal, and moral perspective. Therefore, this review aims to explore the ethical and legal implications of euthanasia in canine patients. It will analyze the reason that can justify euthanasia in animals with pain or terminal and chronic degenerative diseases, highlighting the importance of effective communication, ethical knowledge, and consideration of euthanasia as a multimodal resolution.

Canine Geriatric Syndrome: A Framework for Advancing Research in Veterinary Geroscience

Biological aging is the single most important risk factor for disease, disability, and ultimately death in geriatric dogs. The effects of aging in companion dogs also impose significant financial and psychological burdens on their human caregivers. The underlying physiologic processes of canine aging may be occult, or early signs of aging may be ignored because of the misconception that biological aging is natural and therefore inevitable. The ability to detect, quantify, and mitigate the deleterious processes of canine aging would greatly enhance veterinary preventative medicine and animal welfare. In this paper we propose a new conceptual framework for aging in dogs, the Canine Geriatric Syndrome (CGS). CGS consists of the multiple, interrelated physical, functional, behavioral, and metabolic changes that characterize canine aging as well as the resulting clinical manifestations, including frailty, diminished quality of life, and age-associated disease. We also identify potential key components of a CGS assessment tool, a clinical instrument that would enable veterinarians to diagnose CGS and would facilitate the development and testing of interventions to prolong healthspan and lifespan in dogs by directly targeting the biological mechanisms of aging. There are many gaps in our knowledge of the mechanisms and phenotype of aging in dogs that must be bridged before a CGS assessment tool can be deployed. The conceptual framework of CGS should facilitate identifying these gaps and should stimulate research to better characterize the processes and effects of aging in dogs and to identify the most promising preventative strategies to target these.

Validation and preliminary data from a health-related quality of life questionnaire for owners of dogs with cardiac disease

BACKGROUND

Cardiac disease in dogs impacts the quality of life (QoL) of their owners, but owners' QoL has not been comprehensively assessed in this population.

OBJECTIVES

To develop, validate, and provide preliminary data from a health-related QoL (hrQoL) questionnaire for owners of dogs with cardiac disease.

SUBJECTS

A total of 141 owners of dogs with cardiac disease were studied.

METHODS

An owner hrQoL (O-hrQoL) questionnaire containing 20 items related to areas of a person's life that could be impacted by caring for a dog with cardiac disease was developed and administered to owners of dogs with cardiac disease. The highest possible total score was 100, with higher scores indicating a worse hrQoL. Readability, internal consistency, face and construct validity, and item-total correlations were assessed.

RESULTS

Median O-hrQoL score was 35 (range, 0-87). The questionnaire had good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.933), construct validity (Spearman's r = 0.38-0.53; Kendall's τ = 0.30-0.43; P < .001), and item-total correlation (Spearman's r = 0.44-0.79; Kendall's τ = 0.34-0.66; all P < .001). Fifty percent of owners indicated a negative effect of dogs' cardiac disease on their own QoL, but all owners responded that caring for their dogs either had strengthened (n = 76; 53.9%) or had no effect on their relationship with their dog (n = 65; 46.1%).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE

The O-hrQoL questionnaire had good validity, and results suggest that owners' QoL is significantly impacted by caring for dogs with cardiac disease. Additional research on effective approaches to minimizing the negative effects of a dog's cardiac disease on the owner is warranted.