Perceptions and priorities of owners of dogs with heart disease regarding quality versus quantity of life for their pets.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
To describe the relative importance of pets' quality versus quantity of life among owners of dogs with heart disease.

DESIGN:
Prospective questionnaire-based clinical study.

SAMPLE POPULATION:
Owners of 201 dogs with heart disease.

PROCEDURES:
Owners each completed a questionnaire that was designed to ascertain the relative importance of quality versus quantity of life for their pet and to assess the owners' willingness to trade survival time for quality of life, if that were possible. Analyses were performed to evaluate factors associated with owner willingness to trade time for quality of life.

RESULTS:
Most owners (170/197 [86%]) were willing to trade survival time for quality of life for their heart disease-affected dogs; of those owners, 88 (52%) were willing to trade 6 months. Owners were highly concerned with detection of perceived pet suffering and their pet's ability to interact with them. Owners whose pets had respiratory difficulty or fainting episodes and were treated on an outpatient basis had a greater willingness to trade survival time than owners of dogs that were treated on an emergency basis. Among owners willing to trade time for quality of life, younger owners and those whose pets had fainting episodes were willing to trade the most amount of time.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
Results indicated that quality of life is highly important to owners of dogs with heart disease. Owners' priorities partly depend on owner age and the pet's clinical circumstances; ongoing client-veterinarian communication is important to optimize treatment success as perceived by owners.

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Author information

Author/s: Oyama, Mark A (MA); Rush, John E (JE); O'Sullivan, M Lynne (ML); Williams, Regan M (RM); Rozanski, Elizabeth A (EA); Petrie, Jean-Paul (JP); Sleeper, Meg M (MM); Brown, Dorothy Cimino (DC);

Affiliation: Department of Clinical Studies-Philadelphia, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (J Am Vet Med Assoc), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 233 (issue 1) : pp 104-8

Dates: Created 2008/07/02; Completed 2008/07/29;

PMID: 18593317, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Animal Welfare
Animals
Dog Diseases - psychology
Dogs
Female
Heart Diseases - psychology; veterinary
Humans

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