title: Owner-assessed indices of quality of life in cats and the relationship to the presence of degenerative joint disease.
abstract: This study evaluated the types of items owners consider important to their cats' quality of life (QoL). We hypothesized that items contributing to QoL in cats are predominantly items requiring mobility. The objectives of the study were to describe the types of items considered important by owners for their cats' QoL; to describe the proportion of these items that involve mobility; to evaluate what patient factors, including severity of degenerative joint disease (DJD), affect this distribution; and to evaluate whether the proportion of QoL items involving mobility chosen by owners is different in cats presenting for a DJD study compared with a randomly selected population. A total of 830 client-generated items were evaluated. Regardless of DJD status, 40% of items listed by owners involved mobility, while 60% were 'inactive' items, rejecting our hypothesis. This highlights the need to assess non-active items that owners consider to constitute QoL to fully assess the impact of diseases like DJD and, therefore, the success of therapeutic interventions.
authors.affiliation: Comparative Pain Research Laboratory, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benito
authors.forename: Margaret E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Gruen
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: B Duncan X
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Lascelles
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D002415:Cats; D005260:Female; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D006801:Humans; D007592:Joint Diseases / Q000523:psychology / Q000662:veterinary*; D007593:Joint Instability / Q000523:psychology / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012420:Running; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016138:Walking