{"doi":"10.1101/2023.04.01.535178","title":"Development and Validation of a Novel Instrument to Capture Companion Dog Mortality Data: The Dog Aging Project End of Life Survey","abstract":"Objective: The researchers and clinicians within the Dog Aging Project (DAP), a longitudinal cohort study of aging in companion dogs, created and validated a novel survey instrument titled the End of Life Survey (EOLS) to gather owner-reported mortality data about companion dogs. Sample: Bereaved dog owners who participated in the refinement, face validity assessment, or reliability assessment of the EOLS (n=42) and/or completed the entire survey between January 20 and March 24, 2021 (n=646). Procedures: The EOLS was created and modified by veterinary health professionals and human gerontology experts using published literature, clinical veterinary experience, previously created DAP surveys, and feedback from a pilot study conducted with bereaved dog owners. The EOLS was subjected to qualitative validation methods and post-hoc free-text analysis to evaluate its ability to thoroughly capture scientifically relevant aspects of companion dogs' death. Results: The EOLS was well-received with excellent face validity as assessed by dog owners and experts. The EOLS had fair to substantial reliability for the three validation themes: cause of death (kappa = 0.73; 95% CI [0.5-0.95]), perimortem quality of life (kappa = 0.49; 95% CI [0.26-0.73]), and reason for euthanasia (kappa = 0.3; 95% CI [0.08-0.52]) and had no need for any substantial content alterations based on free-text analysis. Clinical Relevance: The EOLS has proven to be a well-accepted, comprehensive, and valid instrument for capturing owner-reported companion dog mortality data and has the potential to enhance veterinarians' ability to care for the aging dog population by illuminating their understanding of companion dogs' end-of-life experiences.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2023,"id":394386,"datarank":0.20794415416798362,"base_score":1.3862943611198906,"endowment":1.3862943611198906,"self_citation_contribution":0.20794415416798362,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.20794415416798362,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":35.18991258606018,"corpus_rank":8206,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":true,"is_dataset_confidence":0.6681,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":877181,"name":"Kate E. Creevy","orcid":"0000-0003-4169-374X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":280710,"name":"Annette L. Fitzpatrick","orcid":"0000-0003-1941-6586","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":877881,"name":"Vanessa Wilkins","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130768,"name":"Brian Barnett","orcid":"0000-0001-9181-236X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":676979,"name":"Audrey Ruple","orcid":"0000-0002-5223-0217","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1099837,"name":"Kellyn E. McNulty","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":49,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:19:14.590635Z","pmid":"37034699","pmcid":"PMC10081320","fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}