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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Humanities and Social Sciences
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1422359

Life with Pets Study: Lower income veterinary clients' perception of pets' quality of life

Provisionally accepted
Elizabeth B. Strand Elizabeth B. Strand 1*Kristel Scoresby Kristel Scoresby 2Hannah Walker Hannah Walker 1Ana Hernandez Ana Hernandez 3Veronica Accornero Veronica Accornero 3Lori Messinger Lori Messinger 1Pamela Linden Pamela Linden 1Chesney Ward Chesney Ward 1Matthew P. Knight Matthew P. Knight 1Haley Engelman Haley Engelman 1Kristin Moore Kristin Moore 1Margaret R. Slater Margaret R. Slater 3
  • 1 The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, United States
  • 2 University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
  • 3 American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), New York, New York, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Perception of quality of life for cats and dogs of low-income Spanish and English-speaking veterinary clients attending problem focused or routine veterinary visits is an important area of focus for community based veterinary service providers. Using a qualitative approach, 50 New York City based American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) veterinary clients completed semi-structured interviews as well as a survey about their perception of life with their pets. Veterinary clients shared both human-animal bond (HAB) related and quality of life (QoL) related factors in their daily experience of life with their pets. Results indicated that this demographic perceives QoL similarly to previous QoL research that either does not report sample demographics or reports sample demographics with more affluence. Moreover, 60% of qualitative excerpts included both HAB and QoL themes and 40% were discretely HAB or QoL. An analog single item 10-point scale measuring veterinary client perception of their pets QoL did not differentiate between sample demographics at a statistically significant level. Finally, pet QoL literature has not traditionally reflected diverse demographic identities of veterinary clients or widely included reliable and valid measures of the human-animal bond (HAB). These results support the importance of measuring the HAB when researching pet QoL and provide evidence that lower-income Spanish and English-speaking veterinary clients are similarly bonded and attentive to their pets as other demographics.

    Keywords: pet quality of life, human-animal bond, low-income veterinary clients, community veterinary medicine, Spanish-speaking adults

    Received: 23 Apr 2024; Accepted: 28 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Strand, Scoresby, Walker, Hernandez, Accornero, Messinger, Linden, Ward, Knight, Engelman, Moore and Slater. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Elizabeth B. Strand, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.