Pain assessment in animals

Reid, J., Scott, M. , Nolan, A. and Wiseman-Orr, L. (2013) Pain assessment in animals. In Practice, 35(2), pp. 51-56. (doi: 10.1136/inp.f631)

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Abstract

Attitudes to pain in animals have changed dramatically over the past two decades, with marked advances in its treatment. However, while the importance of measuring animal pain in a valid and reliable manner has been acknowledged for some time, veterinary scientists have been slow to recognise the important contribution of the psychometric approach to the construction of measurement instruments. Well established in human medicine, psychometric methods, which ensure that the end product is valid, reliable and, where required, responsive to clinical change, are the ‘gold standard’ in instrument design. In addition to discussing the particular challenges veterinary scientists face when designing instruments to measure pain in animals, this article describes the psychometric approach and, using the dog as an example, demonstrates how this approach can be used to produce scientifically robust pain scales for non‐human species.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Nolan, Professor Andrea and Wiseman-Orr, Dr Lesley and Scott, Professor Marian and Reid, Professor Jacky
Authors: Reid, J., Scott, M., Nolan, A., and Wiseman-Orr, L.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
College of Science and Engineering > School of Mathematics and Statistics > Statistics
College of Social Sciences > School of Education
Journal Name:In Practice
Publisher:Wiley
ISSN:0263-841X
ISSN (Online):2042-7689
Published Online:07 February 2013

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