Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36649089›Full record

ArticleJournal of feline medicine and surgery2023

Can cat caregivers reliably assess acute pain in cats using the Feline Grimace Scale? A large bilingual global survey.

Beatriz P Monteiro, Netta Hy Lee, Paulo V Steagall

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of feline medicine and surgery, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. 2025 FelineVMA feline oral health and dental care guidelines.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2025
    Guideline
  2. CowPainCheck: AI-based facial expression analysis for dairy cow welfare.Journal of animal science and technology · 2026
    Review
  3. Review
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  8. A Review of Assessment of Sow Pain During Farrowing Using Grimace Scores.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Review
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  13. Article
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  16. Video-based compilation of acute pain behaviours in cats.Journal of feline medicine and surgery · 2024
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Beatriz P MonteiroDepartment of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-5722-5687
Netta Hy LeeThe Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, Roslin, UK.
Paulo V SteagallDepartment of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-4150-6043

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesThis study aimed to investigate if cat caregivers could reliably assess acute pain using the Feline Grimace Scale (FGS), and if participant demographics could affect scores.

methodsAn online survey in English and Spanish was advertised by International Cat Care and other platforms (March-May 2021) using convenience sampling. Eligible participants were caregivers >18 years old and non-veterinary health professionals. Participants and a group of eight veterinarians scored 10 images of cats with different levels of pain. Data were analysed using linear models and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC; α <0.05). Interpretation of the ICC was <0.2 = poor; 0.21-0.4 = reasonable; 0.41-0.60 = moderate; 0.61-0.80 = good; and 0.81-1.0 = very good.

resultsA total of 3039 responses were received with 1262 completed answers from 66 countries (86%, 11.1% and 2.9% identified as female, male or other, respectively). Scores for each action unit (AU; ear position, orbital tightening, muzzle tension, whiskers change and head position) and their sum (FGS score) were not significantly different between caregivers and veterinarians, except for muzzle (caregivers 0.9 ± 0.0; veterinarians 0.7 ± 0.1; CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Total FGS scores had good reliability when used by cat caregivers, regardless of demographic variables, showing the potential applicability of the instrument to improve feline pain management and welfare worldwide.

Indexed as

Acute PainCat DiseasesAnimalsCaregiversCatsFemaleHumansMalePain ManagementPain MeasurementReproducibility of ResultsAnalgesiaanimal welfarecaregiverFeline Grimace Scalehuman–animal bondpain awareness

Identifiers

PMID36649089
PMCPMC10812049

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

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.