Jackson J, Radford A D, Belshaw Z, Wallis L J, Kubinyi E, German A J, Westgarth C
Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Neston, UK.
Evivet Research Consultancy, Nottingham, UK.
J Small Anim Pract. 2025 Feb;66(2):81-91. doi: 10.1111/jsap.13809. Epub 2024 Dec 12.
The UK dog population is living longer, raising concerns about their welfare as a result of ageing-related diseases. Our primary objective was to determine when dogs enter the "old age" life stage based on free-text clinical narratives in veterinary electronic health records. In addition, to identify common conditions documented during consultations with old dogs.
Regular expressions were developed for: ageing, elderly, geriatric, senior and old. These were used to search the veterinary clinical narratives within a large database of veterinary electronic health records. A sample of 1000 consultations were then read, and those confirmed as being old age classified according to a modified scheme based on the World Health Organization International Classification of Disease 10th Revision.
A total of 832 old age dogs were identified. The age at which veterinary professionals considered dogs to be in old age was over 7.25 years in 95% of patients (median age 12.5 years). This age varied among the most common breeds, with cocker spaniels being younger (median 11.7 years) compared with Jack Russell terriers (14.1 years). Weight-related (289/832 consultations, 35%), musculoskeletal (278, 33%), dental (254, 31%), integumentary (235, 28%) and digestive (187, 22%) conditions were most common. The odds of a dental condition were greater (odds ratio: 2.71, 95% confidence interval: 1.38 to 5.31) and musculoskeletal condition less (odds ratio: 0.36, 95% confidence interval: 0.17 to 0.81) in cocker spaniels than in a mixed breeds reference.
This metric applied at scale to identify old patients may provide a novel foundation for timely health interventions targeted to dogs at increased risk of developing various age-related conditions.
英国犬类的寿命越来越长，这引发了人们对其因老龄相关疾病而产生的福利问题的担忧。我们的主要目标是根据兽医电子健康记录中的自由文本临床叙述，确定犬类何时进入“老年”生命阶段。此外，还要识别与老龄犬会诊期间记录的常见病症。
针对“衰老”“老年”“老年病”“高龄”和“老”等词汇编写了正则表达式。这些表达式被用于在一个大型兽医电子健康记录数据库中搜索兽医临床叙述。然后阅读了1000份会诊记录样本，并根据基于世界卫生组织《国际疾病分类》第10版修改后的方案，对那些被确认为老年的病例进行分类。
共识别出832只老年犬。兽医专业人员认为犬类进入老年的年龄在95%的患者中超过7.25岁（中位年龄12.5岁）。这个年龄在最常见的犬种中有所不同，可卡犬比杰克罗素梗犬进入老年的年龄更小（中位年龄11.7岁），而杰克罗素梗犬为14.1岁。与体重相关的病症（289/832次会诊，35%）、肌肉骨骼病症（278例，33%）、牙科病症（254例，31%）、皮肤病症（235例，28%）和消化系统病症（187例，22%）最为常见。与混种犬参考组相比，可卡犬患牙科病症的几率更高（优势比：2.71，95%置信区间：1.38至5.31），而患肌肉骨骼病症的几率更低（优势比：0.36，95%置信区间：0.17至0.81）。
这种大规模应用于识别老年患者的指标，可能为针对有患各种老龄相关病症风险增加的犬类及时进行健康干预提供新的基础。
