Development of an Early Warning System for Owners Using a Validated Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQL) Instrument for Companion Animals and Its Use in a Large Cohort of Dogs

Abstract

Preventive measures in human healthcare are recognized as a means of providing early detection of disease, however, the veterinary profession has not been as effective in communicating the benefits of preventive measures to pet owners. Readily available pet healthcare information on the internet, owners not understanding that regular health evaluations can ensure the well-being of their pets and owners confusing the signs of chronic disease with normal aging have contributed to declining numbers of veterinary visits. The use of web-based generic health–related quality of life (HRQL) measures to evaluate health status (wellness) remotely could facilitate veterinary preventive medicine. This publication describes the development and practical application of an integrated alert system for an online generic HRQL measurement instrument (VetMetrica™) which generates scores in four domains of HRQL—Energetic/Enthusiastic (E/E), Happy/Content (H/C), Active/Comfortable (A/C), and Calm/Relaxed (C/R)—for 2 age groups (young/middle-aged, ≤7 years and old, ≥8 years). The alert provides an early warning, via email to owners, that a potentially significant deterioration in health status has occurred. The model accurately predicted the health status of 93 and 83% of sick young/middle aged and old dogs respectively, with healthy dogs predicted with 83% accuracy. HRQL data, collected via a white-labeled veterinary clinic branded app designed to facilitate connected care between owner and veterinarian, were analyzed for 6,108 dogs, aged between 6 weeks and 16 years. Of these 5,002 were deemed to be in perfect health by their owners, yet the alert was triggered for 1,343 (27%) of these, 75% of which were young/middle-aged and 25% were old, indicating that acute injuries notwithstanding, many middle aged dogs may have been suffering from undetected chronic disease such as osteoarthritis. This work has demonstrated that the use of VetMetrica™ delivered via the PetDialog™ app, which supports 24/7 remote health monitoring is an efficient way for vets to provide all their owners with the opportunity to monitor their animal's wellness throughout their lifetime, providing the vet with a mechanism to identify health problems early while stimulating owners to be more proactive in seeking veterinary attention.