Data_Sheet_1_Effect of Age, Breed, and Sex on the Health-Related Quality of Life of Owner Assessed Healthy Dogs.xlsx

Using an app, this exploratory study generated information on HRQL in a large cohort of dogs deemed healthy according to the owner. It forms the basis for further studies investigating the natural history of HRQL of dogs to inform the interpretation of interventional studies, but highlights the risks of relying on owner impression of health status. A previously published health-related quality of life (HRQL) instrument (VetMetrica™) that generates scores in four domains of quality of life in dogs - Energetic and Enthusiastic (E/E), Happy and Content (H/C), Active and Comfortable (A/C), and Calm and Relaxed (C/R), generated information on HRQL in 4,217 dogs (3 months−21 years). Dogs were categorized by age; young, 3–47 months, middle-aged, 48–95 months, and old, 96 months and older. Owners considered 2,959 dogs (3–95 months) to be “in perfect health” and these were used to explore the relationship between age, sex, breed and HRQL in apparently healthy dogs. Mean score was significantly greater (better) in young compared to middle-aged dogs in E/E, H/C and A/C and declined with advancing age. In H/C there was a small but significant difference in mean score between female and male dogs (mean greater in females), with a similar rate of decline in each gender with advancing age. In E/E there were very small but statistically significant differences in mean scores between certain breeds. In A/C there was a statistically significant interaction between breed and age and the rate of decline with advancing age differed with breed. Overall, age, breed, and sex predicted very little of the variation seen in HRQL scores. Data from a subset of 152 dogs, for whom clinical information was available, were used to examine the agreement between clinical evidence and owner opinion. According to the clinical records, 89 dogs were healthy and 63 had evidence of chronic disease. There was an approximately 40% disagreement between owner opinion on health status and clinical evidence of chronic disease (35% disagreement in all dogs and 43% in old dogs). HRQL scores were generally higher in dogs for whom there was no evidence of disease in the clinical record.

本探索性研究通过一款应用程序，针对主人认定为健康的大规模犬只队列生成了健康相关生活质量（health-related quality of life，HRQL）相关数据。该数据可为后续探究犬只HRQL自然史的研究奠定基础，以辅助干预性研究的结果解读，但同时也凸显了仅依赖主人对健康状况的主观判断所带来的风险。
本研究使用此前已发表的犬只健康相关生活质量评估工具（VetMetrica™），该工具可从四个生活质量维度为犬只生成评分：精力充沛与热情高涨（Energetic and Enthusiastic，E/E）、开心满足（Happy and Content，H/C）、活跃舒适（Active and Comfortable，A/C）以及平静放松（Calm and Relaxed，C/R）。研究共收集了4217只年龄介于3个月至21岁的犬只的HRQL相关数据。
研究按年龄将犬只划分为三组：幼年组（3~47月龄）、中年组（48~95月龄）以及老年组（96月龄及以上）。
主人将其中2959只年龄介于3~95月龄的犬只认定为“完全健康”，并以此为样本探究外观健康犬只的年龄、性别、品种与HRQL之间的关联。
在E/E、H/C与A/C三个维度中，幼年组犬只的平均得分显著高于中年组（即生活质量更优），且得分随年龄增长呈下降趋势。
在H/C维度中，雌性与雄性犬只的平均得分存在小幅但具有统计学意义的差异（雌性平均得分更高），且两类性别的犬只得分随年龄增长的下降速率均相近。
在E/E维度中，部分品种犬只的平均得分仅存在微小但具有统计学意义的差异。
在A/C维度中，品种与年龄间存在具有统计学意义的交互效应，且不同品种犬只的得分随年龄增长的下降速率存在差异。
总体而言，年龄、品种与性别仅能解释HRQL得分变异中的极小一部分。
研究使用了152只拥有临床信息的犬只的子集数据，以验证临床诊断结果与主人主观健康判断之间的一致性。
根据临床病历记录，其中89只犬只被认定为健康，63只犬只存在慢性疾病证据。
主人对健康状况的判断与临床慢性疾病诊断结果之间存在约40%的不一致率（所有犬只的不一致率约为35%，老年犬只的不一致率则为43%）。
临床记录中未发现疾病证据的犬只，其HRQL得分普遍更高。