North Carolina State University researchers have developed a questionnaire to help predict short-term mortality in older dogs.
“We were motivated to develop a frailty phenotype, or set of common characteristics, in part because we think frailty may be altering outcomes for some of the dogs in our clinical trials,” said Dr. Natasha Olby, the distinguished chair in gerontology at NCSU.
“[Assessing frailty] is an emerging field in dogs, and there is a need for screening tools that can be applied easily,” she said.
The researchers developed the canine screening questionnaire from human frailty assessments. They asked pet owners about the five domains of frailty, which included each dog’s overall body condition and appetite, energy level, mobility, muscle condition, and social activity.
Dogs deemed impaired in three of the five domains were considered frail and twice as likely to die within six months than non-frail dogs.
The study was conducted in these two phases:
- 51 dogs enrolled in a longitudinal study of neural aging at the College of Veterinary Medicine were evaluated at three- to six-month intervals to identify potential measures for the five domains of frailty. This information was used to develop a frailty phenotype.
- 198 dogs age 9 or older were assessed to determine the phenotype’s predictive value.
“The reality is that you never really know how long a dog will live, but this questionnaire, coupled with body and muscle condition scores, is good at predicting six-month mortality,” Dr. Olby said. “It is an easy, deployable screening tool that doesn’t require lab work.
“One of the most common questions veterinarians receive from owners trying to decide on treatments for elder dogs is, ‘How long will my dog live?’” If we could develop a phenotype that is reasonably predictive of short-term mortality, it could be helpful for owners who are faced with treatment decisions.”
According to NCSU, Dr. Olby is conducting clinical trials on potential interventions and therapies for aging dogs.
The research paper may be accessed in Frontiers in Veterinary Science at bit.ly/3XXi5Sl.