Abstract
BackgroundClinical signs and consequences of Cushing's syndrome are likely to impact upon a dog's life. Quantification of this impact on a dog's health‐related quality‐of‐life (HRQoL) could contribute to optimized disease management.Hypothesis/objectivesTo develop a novel HRQoL tool to aid assessment of dogs with Cushing's syndrome and to evaluate factors that impact upon dogs living with this disease.AnimalsTwo hundred and ten dogs with Cushing's syndrome and 617 dogs without Cushing's syndrome.MethodsCross‐sectional study design. Dog owners answered questions relating to the HRQoL of their dogs which were refined to develop the final tool. The tool was analyzed for reliability, validity, and interpretability, including Cronbach's alpha and principal components analysis. Factors impacting upon the HRQoL of dogs with Cushing's syndrome were assessed using appropriate nonparametric tests.ResultsThe tool was refined from 32 questions to 19 and showed good internal consistency (α = .83). Owners rated questions related to “owner impact” as more important and those related to demeanor as less important. There was a positive correlation between the tool score of dogs with Cushing's syndrome and owner's assessment of their dog's quality‐of‐life (r = .41, P < .001). Dogs currently on treatment with trilostane had a statistically better HRQoL (.33, interquartile range [IQR] .23–.44) than those not receiving trilostane (.36, IQR .33–.54, P = .04).Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceThe developed tool quantifies the HRQoL of dogs with Cushing's syndrome and could assist clinicians in the clinical assessment of dogs with Cushing's syndrome.
Highlights
Assessing the quality-of-life of animals is an integral role of a veterinarian and is required during decision-making on treatment and euthanasia to optimize the health and welfare of animals under their care.[1]
It is accepted that lack of assessment on a dog's health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) could result in inadequate relief from suffering and suboptimal clinical decision-making[4,7] with an awareness that the severity of the clinical signs affecting an individual might correlate poorly with results of routine blood tests.[8]
Owners assessed the importance of each HRQoL question to themselves and their dog (very important (4), important (3), moderately important (2), low importance (1), not at all important (0)).[10]
Summary
Assessing the quality-of-life of animals is an integral role of a veterinarian and is required during decision-making on treatment and euthanasia to optimize the health and welfare of animals under their care.[1] In the current study, health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) refers to the state of an individual animal's life as thought to be perceived by them at a point in time by their owner This includes the physical, social, and environmental needs and impacts which are reflected by the animal's health and behavior.[2] A fundamental issue currently is that assessment of welfare or quality-of-life is not standardized or validated. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: The developed tool quantifies the HRQoL of dogs with Cushing's syndrome and could assist clinicians in the clinical assessment of dogs with Cushing's syndrome
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