title: Association between costly veterinary-care events and 5-year survival of Swedish insured warmblooded riding horses.
abstract: Our objective was to estimate the 5-year survival to death in insured warmblooded riding horses (as reflected by a life-insurance claim) in horses with or without at least one costly veterinary-care event (VCE) in 1997. We also determined the impacts of gender, age, previous diagnosis of veterinary claim, geographic variables, cost for veterinary claims and life-insurance value upon the survival. The design was a retrospective cohort study using a population of warmblooded riding horses insured in a Swedish animal-insurance company (Agria Insurance, P.O. 70306, SE-107 23 Stockholm, Sweden) in 1997. All horses in this population had insurance both for veterinary-care and life ("complete" insurance reimbursing the insurance holder for most medical problems). We followed two cohorts (2,495 horses with > or = 1 VCE and 15,576 horses with no VCE in year 1997). The median VCE cost in horses with > or =1 VCE was 3,800 SEK, with 10th and 90th percentiles of 1,400 and 11,400 SEK respectively. In total 944 of the 2,495 horses (38%) in the VCE-positive cohort and 2,962 of the 15,576 horses (19%) in the VCE-negative cohort had died (had a settled life-insurance claim) after the follow-up time. An exponential-regression model showed that geldings had a higher risk of claimed death compared to mares and mares had a higher risk compared to stallions. The risk of death increased linearly with age. The risk of death increased with increasing life-insurance value. Horses with previous lameness had the lowest survival, and for high-cost claims this increased risk was not associated with age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. Agneta.Egenvall@kv.slu.se
authors.forename: Agneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Egenvall
authors.forename: Brenda N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Bonnett
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Penell
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Emanuelson
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000818:Animals; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000401:mortality*; D006736:Horses; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics*; D007794:Lameness, Animal / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000191:economics*