Life-Stage-Specific Prioritization of Feline Diseases for Health Screening in South Korea

Feline health screening in South Korea lacks local disease priorities. We developed a model combining diagnostic proportions from 39,016 diagnosis entries with disease importance and treatment/management efficacy ratings from 39 veterinarians. Two scoring versions used different orders of multiplication and decile conversion across four life stages: kitten, young adult, mature adult, and senior. Eligibility required a stage-specific diagnostic proportion of at least half the overall proportion for that disease and at least 0.3% of diagnoses in that stage. The versions produced similar top-10 lists. Stomatitis was selected for all four life stages; stomatitis and six additional diseases—chronic kidney disease, urolithiasis, systemic hypertension, pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus, and periodontal disease—were selected for all three adult stages. Infectious diseases featured prominently in kittens, whereas chronic and metabolic diseases became prominent in older cats. Hyperthyroidism was selected only in seniors, and neoplasia remained below the top 10, reflecting its low efficacy score. Scoring prioritized severe chronic or life-threatening conditions more highly than diagnostic proportions alone. Diagnostic proportions describe recorded diagnoses rather than individual-cat population prevalence. These candidate lists require validation and evaluation of screening tests, clinical benefits, cost, accessibility, and patient stress before guidelines can be established.