ArticleScientific reports2021
Agreement and reliability of the Feline Grimace Scale among cat owners, veterinarians, veterinary students and nurses.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- 2025 FelineVMA feline oral health and dental care guidelines.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2025Guideline
- The effects of observer gender on feline acute pain assessment using three pain scoring instruments.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A systematic review of acute pain scoring instruments and their measurement properties in cats and dogs.Journal of veterinary internal medicine · 2026Article
- Analgesic efficacy of oral tramadol-dipyrone combination in cats undergoing ovariohysterectomy.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Agreement of Feline Grimace Scale scores between chatbots and an expert rater.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Development and Validation of an Owner-Assessed Feline Acute Pain Scale: Validation and Agreement with Veterinary Scales.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Survey study based on the assessment and management of pain in cats by veterinary professionals after elective sterilization procedures.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- Incorporating video telehealth for improving at-home management of chronic health conditions in cats: a focus on chronic mobility problems.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Article
- Bovine pain scale: A novel tool for pain assessment in cattle undergoing surgery in the hospital setting.PloS one · 2025Article
- Clinical validation of the Unesp-Botucatu acute pain scale in sheep undergoing orthopedic surgery.PloS one · 2025Article
- How facial expressions reveal acute pain in domestic animals with facial pain scales as a diagnostic tool.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Review
- Automated video-based pain recognition in cats using facial landmarks.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Computational investigation of the social function of domestic cat facial signals.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Behaviors suggestive of pain: the perceptions and veterinary-related decisions of cat guardians in the USA.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2024Article
- Effects of training on Feline Grimace Scale scoring for acute pain assessment in cats.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2024Article
- Agreement of Pain Assessment Using the Short Form of the Canine Glasgow Composite Measure Pain Scale between Veterinary Students, Veterinary Nurses, Veterinary Surgeons, and ECVAA-Diplomates.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- The grimace scale: a useful tool for assessing pain in laboratory animals.Experimental animals · 2024Review
- Validation of the Portuguese Version of the Short-Form Glasgow Composite Measure Pain Scale (CMPS-SF) According to COSMIN and GRADE Guidelines.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Evaluation of the analgesic efficacy of grapiprant compared with robenacoxib in cats undergoing elective ovariohysterectomy in a prospective, randomized, masked, non-inferiority clinical trial.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2024Article
- Comparison between Bilateral Ultrasound-Guided Quadratus Lumborum Block and Sacrococcygeal Epidural in Cats Undergoing Ovariectomy.Veterinary sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the agreement and reliability of the Feline Grimace Scale (FGS) among cat owners, veterinarians, veterinary students and nurses/technicians. Raters (n = 5/group) scored 100 images using the FGS (ear position, orbital tightening, muzzle tension, whiskers position and head position). Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to assess inter- and intra-rater reliability. Agreement between each group and the veterinarian group (gold-standard) was calculated using the Bland-Altman method. Effects of gender, age and number of cats owned on FGS scores were assessed using linear mixed models. Inter-rater reliability was good for FGS final scores (ICC > 0.8). The muzzle and whiskers yielded lower reliability (ICC = 0.39 to 0.74). Intra-rater reliability was excellent for students and veterinarians (ICC = 0.91), and good for owners and nurses (ICC = 0.87 and 0.81, respectively). A very good agreement between all groups and veterinarians (bias < 0.1 and narrow limits of agreement) was observed. Female raters assigned higher FGS scores than males (p = 0.006); however, male raters were underrepresented in this study. Scores were not affected by age or number of cats owned. The FGS is reliable for feline acute pain assessment when used by individuals with different experience.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.