Open AccessRisk Factors for Equine Gastric Glandular Disease: A Case‐Control Study in a Finnish Referral Hospital Population
Author(s) -
Mönki J.,
Hewetson M.,
Virtala A.M.K.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of veterinary internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.356
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1939-1676
pISSN - 0891-6640
DOI - 10.1111/jvim.14370
Subject(s) - medicine , warmblood , breed , horse , population , logistic regression , case control study , disease , gastroenterology , retrospective cohort study , risk factor , zoology , paleontology , environmental health , biology
Background Equine gastric glandular disease ( EGGD ) is a term used to classify erosive and ulcerative diseases of the glandular mucosa of the equine stomach. Epidemiologic studies of risk factors for EGGD have not been reported. Objective To determine risk factors for EGGD . Animals Cases ( n = 83) had endoscopic evidence of EGGD ; controls ( n = 34) included healthy horses and horses with equine squamous gastric disease ( ESGD ) without EGGD . Methods Retrospective case‐control study. The data were analyzed by multivariable logistic regression modeling. Analysis was performed on the full dataset. An additional analysis compared horses with glandular lesions ( n = 43) against healthy horses ( n = 22). Results On first analysis, Warmblood breed ( OR = 13.9, 95% CI 2.2–90.9, P = .005) and an increasing number of caretakers ( OR = 7.3, 95% CI 0.98–55.6, P = .053) were associated with an increased risk of EGGD . On analysis of the subset of data, Warmblood breed ( OR = 28.6, 95% CI 2.96–250.0, P = .004) and increasing number of riders ( OR = 12.99, 95% CI 0.94–166.7, P = .056) were risk factors. The presence of sand in the colon appeared to have a protective effect against EGGD ( OR = 0.195, 95% CI 0.04–1.0, P = .051 for sand versus not having sand). Conclusions and clinical importance This study suggests that Warmbloods are predisposed to EGGD and multiple handlers/riders might increase the risk of EGGD . Identification of risk factors allows speculation on potential pathophysiological mechanisms of EGGD .