2026 Pet Obesity Prevalence Survey Materials

Use this section to review who to include, what data to record, how owner perception is handled, and how results are interpreted.

Purpose

The APOP Prevalence Survey is a cross-sectional, clinic-based assessment designed to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among dogs and cats seen in veterinary practice. Participating clinics are asked to assess all consecutive eligible skeletally mature dogs and cats seen during a designated collection day or week within the study period.

Eligible patients

Include all skeletally mature dogs and cats seen during the collection period, regardless of body condition. Exclude emergency or urgent cases, critical illness, terminal conditions, and visits in which positioning, pain, or acute distress would interfere with accurate body condition assessment.

What to record

Clinics record species, body weight, veterinary-assessed 1 to 9 Body Condition Score (BCS), and the owner’s initial weight perception before formal BCS assessment.

Veterinary assessment

The primary prevalence estimate is based on veterinary-assessed BCS using the 9-point system based on the Laflamme scale: 4–5 ideal, 6–7 overweight, and 8–9 consistent with obesity. Participating clinics receive scoring guidance and instruction materials to support consistent assessment across evaluators and sites.

Owner-reported perception

Owner-reported responses are analyzed separately from the veterinary-assessed prevalence estimate. They are used to assess concordance and discordance between owner impression and clinical assessment, not to estimate prevalence.

Sampling guidance

To support consistency and reduce bias, participating clinics are asked to include all breeds and body sizes, avoid selectively enrolling only pets perceived to be overweight or to have obesity, and record each eligible dog or cat once during the collection period.

Data review

Submitted records undergo structured review before analysis, including checks for internal consistency and biologic plausibility. Records that are implausible, incomplete, or internally inconsistent are corrected only when verifiable and otherwise excluded according to predefined criteria.

Analysis and interpretation

Prevalence is calculated from eligible pets with complete veterinary-assessed BCS data. Because the survey is cross-sectional and clinic-based, results describe prevalence at the time of assessment and are interpreted as clinic-based surveillance estimates rather than nationally representative population estimates.