Feline diabetes mellitus in the UK: the prevalence within an insured cat population and a questionnaire-based putative risk factor analysis

Abstract

Prevalence and risk factors for the development of diabetes mellitus (DM) in cats in the United Kingdom have not previously been reported. The prevalence of DM was evaluated in a large insured population and was found to be 1 in 230 cats. In this insured cat population Burmese cats were 3.7 times more likely to develop DM than non-pedigree cats. A convenience-sampling questionnaire-based study was used in order to identify putative risk factors for the development of DM. The univariate risk factor analysis identified being male, neutered, inactive, weighing >or=5 kg and having a history of corticosteroid treatment as significant risk factors for the development of DM in these cats. In addition, male cats treated with megestrol acetate had a significantly increased risk of developing DM compared to females. In contrast, there was no difference in DM occurrence between male and female Burmese cats. A multivariate classification tree-based model on the questionnaire data looking for interactions between risk factors, identified gender as the most important overall risk factor for the development of DM with low physical activity being the next most important risk factor for female cats and breed the next most important for male cats.

Fig 1.

Pie chart of the 36 cat breeds recorded from questionnaire data on 742 cats, with the 10 most common breeds first.

Fig 2.

Tree diagram of the occurrence of DM for different combinations of risk factors. Data consist of the 584 questionnaires for which information on breed (B), sex, neutered status (Neut), activity level, and steroid usage. The percentage values at the end of each branch are the occurrence rates of DM in those particular cats with that particular combination of risk factors, and the values in brackets the number of cats of that particular combination of risk factors. (A–D) Please refer to the main text.