Instruments to assess disease-specific quality of life in dogs : a scoping review

Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) assessment has increased in veterinary medicine in recent years, as has the number of attempts to measure it. This review aimed to provide an overview and assess the quality of existing instruments measuring disease-specific QoL in dogs. The PubMed and CAB Abstracts databases were searched in February 2023 using search terms associated with dogs, well-being, and QoL to identify relevant articles which were then evaluated for information on the development and validation processes. For further analysis, 41 publications were selected, of which instruments were available for 30 publications; of these, 24 contained information on item development, while 12 of the 41 instruments described some form of instrument evaluation. Among these 12 instruments, 2 exhibited appropriate test–retest reliability, 7 exhibited acceptable internal consistency, 9 checked at least one face or content validity, and 8 tested at least one sort of hypothesis to contribute to construct validity evaluation. None of the instruments were thoroughly evaluated for all necessary psychometric aspects for their application and result interpretation. Therefore, these instruments’ usage should be carefully considered and subject to restrictions. Further research should focus on establishing guidelines aiming to achieve high standards for instrument development and validation in veterinary medicine.