The effect of obesity and subsequent weight reduction on cardiac morphology and function in cats

BMC Veterinary Research

Table 1 Weight reduction and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) data for the cats that achieved target weight reduction

Variable	Number of cats	Before weight reduction		After weight reduction		P value	*r value^a [Effect size]*
Variable	Number of cats	Median	(IQR)	Median	(IQR)	P value	*r value^a [Effect size]*
Weight (kg)	11	7.20	6.40–9.05	5.36	5.18–6.04	0.003	0.88
BCS (/9)	11	8	8–9	5	5–7	0.003	0.90
Body fat (%)	9	35.1	29.5–48.3	17.4	10.9–31.4	0.008	0.89
Body fat (g)	9	2138.0	1792.0–3495.0	976.0	481.5–1540.5	0.008	0.89
Lean mass (g)	9	4095.0	3469.0–4707.0	3547.0	3133.5–4316.0	0.008	0.89
BMC (g)	9	143.9	127.0–168.1	125.1	113.4–145.4	0.008	0.89

Eleven cats achieved target weight loss, for which repeat DEXA was available in 9
BCS Body condition score, BMC Bone mineral content, IQR Interquartile range
^aEffect size was calculated from the z statistic, and used to calculate r, as described by Cohen [18, 19], using the formula r = Z /√N (where Z is the z statistic and N is the sample size). The effect size, r, was interpreted according to the rules of Cohen [19], whereby values of 0.1, 0.3 and ≥ 0.5 were considered small, medium and large effects respectively [18, 19]

ISSN: 1746-6148