Development of a scale to evaluate mobility in dogs

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to develop and to assess the psychometric characteristics of a mobility scale for dogs. The original ten questions were reduced using validation process. One hundred and twenty three dog owners were invited to answer the questionnaire. Internal consistency, factor analysis, floor and ceiling effect and construct validity were studied. Good internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha=0.854) was determined with two items eliminated. The instrument comprises 8 final questions, each of which has five possible answers (never, rarely, sometimes, often and always) scored between 0 and 4 or between 4 and 0 (for the items with inverse score). Three hypotheses proposed for the construct validity were verified: 1) gender does not influence dog mobility (P=0.584); 2) mobility decreases with age (P<0.001); 3) dogs with orthopaedic or neurological diagnosed pathologies have less mobility (median score (P25; P75) 46.9% (31.3; 68.8)) than healthy dogs (median score (P25; P75) 81.3% (71.9; 93.8)) (P<0.001). Total score range was 0 to 32 points, with higher values indicating greater mobility of dogs. The Dog Mobility Scale was capable of assessing mobility in dogs, with good psychometric characteristics, and is simple and inexpensive to apply in clinical practice