Development and evaluation of a health‐related quality‐of‐life tool for dogs with Cushing's syndrome

BACKGROUND: Clinical signs and consequences of Cushing's syndrome are likely to impact upon a dog's life. Quantification of this impact on a dog's health‐related quality‐of‐life (HRQoL) could contribute to optimized disease management. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To develop a novel HRQoL tool to aid assessment of dogs with Cushing's syndrome and to evaluate factors that impact upon dogs living with this disease. ANIMALS: Two hundred and ten dogs with Cushing's syndrome and 617 dogs without Cushing's syndrome. METHODS: Cross‐sectional study design. Dog owners answered questions relating to the HRQoL of their dogs which were refined to develop the final tool. The tool was analyzed for reliability, validity, and interpretability, including Cronbach's alpha and principal components analysis. Factors impacting upon the HRQoL of dogs with Cushing's syndrome were assessed using appropriate nonparametric tests. RESULTS: The tool was refined from 32 questions to 19 and showed good internal consistency (α = .83). Owners rated questions related to “owner impact” as more important and those related to demeanor as less important. There was a positive correlation between the tool score of dogs with Cushing's syndrome and owner's assessment of their dog's quality‐of‐life (r = .41, P < .001). Dogs currently on treatment with trilostane had a statistically better HRQoL (.33, interquartile range [IQR] .23–.44) than those not receiving trilostane (.36, IQR .33–.54, P = .04). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: The developed tool quantifies the HRQoL of dogs with Cushing's syndrome and could assist clinicians in the clinical assessment of dogs with Cushing's syndrome.