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CHEW

Cat Health and Wellbeing Questionnaire (CHEW)

Owner-completed 33-item generic feline quality-of-life survey across eight published domains. Batched into eight per-domain screens to reduce completion fatigue.

Overview

Developer
Freeman, Rodenberg, Narayanan, Olding, Gooding, Koochaki
Year published
2016
Species
Feline
Domain
Quality of life (general wellness)

Structure and administration

33 items in eight subscales (physical functioning, vitality, social functioning, emotional health, general health, coat and grooming, appetite, environment). 5-point Likert (0-4), total range 0-132.

Owner-completed, 8-12 minutes — batched into eight per-domain screens.

Cut-off and interpretation

Cut-off threshold
33

Source: Freeman et al. 2016 emphasise change tracking over a single categorical cut-off. Sightline applies a four-band severity classification keyed off the total range: minimal 0-32, mild 33-65, moderate 66-98, severe 99-132, alongside per-subscale totals.

Citation and validation

Freeman LM, Rodenberg C, Narayanan A, Olding J, Gooding MA, Koochaki PE. Development and evaluation of a questionnaire for assessing health-related quality of life in healthy and unhealthy cats. J Feline Med Surg 2016;18:689-701.

DOI: 10.1177/1098612X15605870

Revisions

  • v1.0 (Freeman, Rodenberg, Narayanan, Olding, Gooding, Koochaki 2016) — original 33-item development and validation in 1,303 cat owners.

Target population

Adult cats whose owners want a generic quality-of-life read across eight domains rather than a disease-specific instrument. Validated in both healthy and unhealthy cats.

Available languages

English (UK)

Licence

Free for research and clinical use with citation. Validated in a 1,303-owner cohort. Founder review confirms wording with the rights holder ahead of public launch.

Scoring algorithm version

sightline-chew-v1.0.0

Strengths

  • Eight published subscales let clinicians and owners see exactly which domain is shifting (mobility, vitality, social, emotional, general health, coat, appetite, environment).
  • Validated in a large cohort (1,303 owners), giving stronger psychometric grounding than smaller-cohort instruments.
  • Free for research and clinical use with citation.
  • Sightline batches the 33 items into eight per-domain screens, so owners face a clear 'one domain at a time' flow rather than 33 single-question screens in a row.

Limitations

  • Generic by design, so it cannot replace a disease-specific instrument when osteoarthritis, dental disease, or another specific condition is the focus.
  • 33 items is long for fortnightly tracking; Sightline defaults to a quarterly cadence (90 days) and pairs CHEW with shorter instruments like FMPI-SF for in-between check-ins.
  • Phase 1 ships English (UK); founder review confirms wording with the rights holder ahead of public launch.

Why Sightline uses it

CHEW gives Sightline its most granular view of feline wellbeing without requiring a specific diagnosis to be in place. Pairing CHEW (broad QoL) with FMPI-SF (musculoskeletal) and CSOM (owner-defined activities) gives a multi-axis read across population-validated, validated-and-targeted, and household-specific signals. The eight-domain subscale breakdown also maps onto the kind of conversations vets have with owners about quality of life — not 'is your cat okay?' but 'which of these eight things has changed?'