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[Preprint]. 2023 Apr 2:2023.04.01.535178.
doi: 10.1101/2023.04.01.535178.

Development and Validation of a Novel Instrument to Capture Companion Dog Mortality Data: The Dog Aging Project End of Life Survey

Kellyn E McNulty  1 , Kate E Creevy  1 , Annette Fitzpatrick  2 , Vanessa Wilkins  1 , Brian G Barnett  3 ; DAP Consortium; Audrey Ruple  4
Affiliations

Development and Validation of a Novel Instrument to Capture Companion Dog Mortality Data: The Dog Aging Project End of Life Survey

Kellyn E McNulty et al. bioRxiv. .

Update in

Abstract

Objective: The researchers and clinicians within the Dog Aging Project (DAP), a longitudinal cohort study of aging in companion dogs, created and validated a novel survey instrument titled the End of Life Survey (EOLS) to gather owner-reported mortality data about companion dogs.

Sample: Bereaved dog owners who participated in the refinement, face validity assessment, or reliability assessment of the EOLS (n=42) and/or completed the entire survey between January 20 and March 24, 2021 (n=646).

Procedures: The EOLS was created and modified by veterinary health professionals and human gerontology experts using published literature, clinical veterinary experience, previously created DAP surveys, and feedback from a pilot study conducted with bereaved dog owners. The EOLS was subjected to qualitative validation methods and post-hoc free-text analysis to evaluate its ability to thoroughly capture scientifically relevant aspects of companion dogs' death.

Results: The EOLS was well-received with excellent face validity as assessed by dog owners and experts. The EOLS had fair to substantial reliability for the three validation themes: cause of death (kappa = 0.73; 95% CI [0.5-0.95]), perimortem quality of life (kappa = 0.49; 95% CI [0.26-0.73]), and reason for euthanasia (kappa = 0.3; 95% CI [0.08-0.52]) and had no need for any substantial content alterations based on free-text analysis.

Clinical relevance: The EOLS has proven to be a well-accepted, comprehensive, and valid instrument for capturing owner-reported companion dog mortality data and has the potential to enhance veterinarians' ability to care for the aging dog population by illuminating their understanding of companion dogs' end-of-life experiences.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Twenty items within the Dog Aging Project (DAP) End of Life Survey (EOLS) offer a list of categorical response options including the option “other, please describe”. Among 646 survey respondents, the bar chart shows the number of respondents for each item who chose one of the provided response choices (light grey) or chose “other, please describe” and provided a free-text response. The “other, please describe” free-text responses were read and coded into the following categories: duplicate of an available response choice for that item (dark grey), duplicate of an available response choice for a different item (black), novel information relevant to EOLS objectives (purple), and novel information not relevant to EOLS objectives (red).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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