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MIPSC

Senior cat mobility screening (MiPSC)

Six-question yes/no mobility screen for senior cats. Sightline routes a positive screen straight to a full feline pain instrument.

Overview

Developer
AAFP / catredflags.com working group
Year published
2021
Species
Feline
Domain
Screening (mobility / chronic pain)

Structure and administration

6 binary items (yes / no). Total 0-6, threshold for positive screen is 1.

Owner-completed, 1-2 minutes.

Cut-off and interpretation

Cut-off threshold
1

Source: AAFP 2021 Senior Care Guidelines: any 'no' answer is a positive screen and warrants a fuller pain assessment with FMPI-SF or MI-CAT(C).

Citation and validation

AAFP Senior Care Guidelines 2021. Multidimensional Pain Scale for Cats screening checklist, distributed via catredflags.com. Based on Reid et al. and the Newmetrica working group.

Revisions

  • AAFP 2021 Senior Care Guidelines integration — six binary items distributed at catredflags.com, designed for in-home owner use.

Target population

Senior cats (typically 7+ years) for whom mobility-related pain often goes undetected. Sightline offers MiPSC at onboarding for any cat aged 7 or over and as a standalone 'quick check' that any owner can run at any time.

Available languages

English (UK)

Licence

Free for clinical use with citation. AAFP-endorsed.

Scoring algorithm version

sightline-mipsc-v1.0.0

Strengths

  • Very fast (1-2 minutes), which keeps owner engagement high and lowers the barrier to early flagging.
  • AAFP-endorsed and integrated into the 2021 Senior Care Guidelines, so it lines up with what vets are already taught.
  • Owner-friendly binary format — no scale interpretation needed. The first 'no' is the moment to do something.
  • Free for clinical use with citation.

Limitations

  • Screen, not a measurement — a positive result does not quantify pain, only flags it.
  • Six questions cannot capture every pain context; non-mobility pain (e.g. dental, abdominal) is out of scope.
  • Does not produce a longitudinal trajectory; Sightline shows the result as negative or positive rather than as a numeric trend.

Why Sightline uses it

Cats hide pain. The MiPSC is the shortest validated and AAFP-endorsed way to surface a pain conversation in households where the owner has not yet noticed a change. By auto-routing positive screens to FMPI-SF or MI-CAT(C), Sightline turns the 1-2 minute screen into the start of a real measurement loop rather than a stand-alone moment.