Development and Preliminary Validation of an Equine Brief Pain Inventory for Owner Assessment of Chronic Pain Due to Osteoarthritis in Horses.
Authors: Howard Diane L, Lancaster Bryony, de Grauw Janny
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
Chronic pain assessment in horses with osteoarthritis has traditionally relied on veterinary clinical examination, but owner observations across the 24-hour period provide crucial complementary data that current tools inadequately capture. Howard and colleagues developed a standardised owner-completed questionnaire using established validation methodology—literature review, focus groups, expert panels, and readability testing—then piloted it with 25 horse owners before advancing to a larger validation cohort of 80 horses (60 with OA, 20 sound controls). The pilot demonstrated excellent practical utility: 84% found it straightforward to complete, 88% judged it clinically useful, and all participants finished within 5 minutes, with Cronbach's alpha of 0.957 confirming robust internal consistency. Preliminary data from 23 OA horses showed significantly higher scores than 5 control horses, with promising test-retest reliability, suggesting the tool meaningfully discriminates between lame and sound populations. Once full validation is complete, this Brief Pain Inventory could provide equine professionals with a practical, evidence-based instrument to quantify pain trajectories and quality-of-life changes in OA management, filling a genuine gap between subjective owner impressions and objective veterinary assessment.
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Practical Takeaways
- •A validated owner-assessment tool for equine chronic pain is in development and may soon provide veterinarians with a standardized, easy-to-use method for monitoring pain and quality-of-life changes in arthritic horses.
- •The instrument's 5-minute completion time and accessible reading level make it practical for routine clinical use across diverse owner populations.
- •Current validation is ongoing with a larger sample (60 OA and 20 control horses); full validation results will be needed before clinical implementation.
Key Findings
- •A new owner-completed questionnaire for assessing chronic pain in horses with osteoarthritis was developed and piloted with 84% of owners (21/25) finding it easy to complete and 88% (22/25) finding it useful.
- •The questionnaire demonstrated excellent internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha of 0.957 and could be completed within 5 minutes by all participants.
- •Readability analysis showed the questionnaire requires a 6th-7th grade reading level, making it accessible to a general audience.
- •Interim validation analysis (23 OA horses vs 5 control horses) showed good test-retest reliability and significantly higher pain scores in OA horses compared to sound controls.