Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Association between costly veterinary-care events and 5-year survival of Swedish insured warmblooded riding horses.
- Journal:
- Preventive veterinary medicine
- Year:
- 2006
- Authors:
- Egenvall, Agneta et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Clinical Sciences
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
This study looked at the survival rates of insured warmblooded riding horses in Sweden over five years, focusing on whether they had experienced any costly veterinary-care events (VCE) in 1997. The researchers followed two groups: nearly 2,500 horses that had at least one VCE and over 15,500 horses that had none. They found that 38% of the horses with a VCE died during the study, compared to 19% of those without a VCE. Factors like being male, older age, and having a higher life-insurance value were linked to a greater risk of death. Overall, the study indicated that horses with previous lameness had the lowest survival rates, and the treatment of costly claims did not seem to improve survival based on age.
Abstract
Our objective was to estimate the 5-year survival to death in insured warmblooded riding horses (as reflected by a life-insurance claim) in horses with or without at least one costly veterinary-care event (VCE) in 1997. We also determined the impacts of gender, age, previous diagnosis of veterinary claim, geographic variables, cost for veterinary claims and life-insurance value upon the survival. The design was a retrospective cohort study using a population of warmblooded riding horses insured in a Swedish animal-insurance company (Agria Insurance, P.O. 70306, SE-107 23 Stockholm, Sweden) in 1997. All horses in this population had insurance both for veterinary-care and life ("complete" insurance reimbursing the insurance holder for most medical problems). We followed two cohorts (2,495 horses with > or = 1 VCE and 15,576 horses with no VCE in year 1997). The median VCE cost in horses with > or =1 VCE was 3,800 SEK, with 10th and 90th percentiles of 1,400 and 11,400 SEK respectively. In total 944 of the 2,495 horses (38%) in the VCE-positive cohort and 2,962 of the 15,576 horses (19%) in the VCE-negative cohort had died (had a settled life-insurance claim) after the follow-up time. An exponential-regression model showed that geldings had a higher risk of claimed death compared to mares and mares had a higher risk compared to stallions. The risk of death increased linearly with age. The risk of death increased with increasing life-insurance value. Horses with previous lameness had the lowest survival, and for high-cost claims this increased risk was not associated with age.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16935370/