Early-life risk factors identified for owner-reported feline overweight and obesity at around two years of age

This study used prospective data from a longitudinal study of pet cats (‘C.L.A.W.S.’, www.bristol.ac.uk/vetscience/claws) to identify early-life risk factors for feline overweight/obesity occurring at around two years of age. Data were collected via five owner-completed questionnaires (for cats aged two–six months, six months, 12 months, 18 months and two years respectively) completed between May 2011 and April 2015. Owner-reported body condition scores (BCS) of cats at age two years, assessed using images from the 9-point BCS system (Laflamme, 1997), were categorised into a dichotomous variable: overweight/obese (BCS 6–9) and not overweight (BCS 1–5) and used as the dependent variable. Of the 375 cats with owner-reported BCS, 25.3% were overweight or obese at two years of age. Multivariable logistic regression models were built using stepwise forward-selection. To account for potential hierarchical clustering due to multi-cat households two-level random intercept models were considered but clustering had no impact on the analysis. Models were compared using Wald tests. Six factors were significantly associated with overweight/obesity at two years of age: being overweight or obese at one year of age (OR=10.6, 95%CI 4.4–25.3); owner belief that BCS 7 was the ideal weight (OR=33.2, 95%CI 8.5–129.4), or that BCS represented overweight cats but they would not be concerned if their cat were classified in this category (OR=2.7, 95%CI 1.2–6.2), at questionnaire five ...
Source: Preventive Veterinary Medicine - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research