The primary problem is identifying what drives secondary traumatic stress among informal feral cat caregivers and which protective factors matter for intervention. The primary keyword is qualitative analysis compassion fatigue, aimed at qualitative researchers, program managers, and municipal health teams who need evidence they can act on. According to the PLOS One study by Costa-Santos et al. (2026) PLOS One, 172 informal caregivers in Portugal were surveyed to link external burdens and internal coping with secondary traumatic stress (published August 3, 2026). This post shows how AI-enabled qualitative research methods turn the study's open-ended data and scale scores into targeted interventions.
Key Takeaways
According to the PLOS One study (Costa-Santos et al., 2026) PLOS One, 172 informal feral cat caregivers in Portugal were surveyed and 47% experienced moderate secondary traumatic stress while 10% reported high levels (published August 3, 2026).
- 47% of 172 caregivers reported moderate secondary traumatic stress and 10% reported high secondary traumatic stress, according to Costa-Santos et al., 2026 (published August 3, 2026).
- Data were collected during telephone interviews between May 9, 2025 and August 29, 2025, as reported by Costa-Santos et al., 2026.
- The study found that caring for colonies larger than 25 cats and being unemployed were statistically associated with higher secondary traumatic stress in the multivariable model, Costa-Santos et al., 2026.
- Costa-Santos et al., 2026 note that “institutional support alone is insufficient to mitigate fatigue among informal caregivers, ” highlighting the need for combined practical and psychosocial interventions.
What happened and how the study measured it
Answer: The PLOS One team quantified secondary traumatic stress and mapped protective factors using structured scales and open-ended questions.
According to Costa-Santos et al., 2026 PLOS One, researchers conducted structured telephone interviews with 174 respondents between May and August 2025 and analysed 172 complete cases (published August 3, 2026).
According to Costa-Santos et al., 2026, the study used the Professional Quality of Life Scale (PROQOL-5) for secondary traumatic stress and compassion satisfaction, validated Portuguese versions of resilience and spiritual well-being scales, and an open-ended item that was coded by inductive content analysis.
Quotation from the study: "the most frequently reported concern among caregivers was the inability to cover the costs of feeding and veterinary care for the cats, " Costa-Santos et al., 2026.
According to Costa-Santos et al., 2026, multivariable linear regression tested predictors including age, employment, colony size, family support, and resilience dimensions, with unemployment showing the strongest standardized association with secondary traumatic stress.
Findings snapshot
| Date | Metric | Value | Implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 3, 2026 | Sample size | 172 caregivers (Portugal) | Study scope supports national relevance and One Health framing |
| May-Aug 2025 | Moderate secondary traumatic stress | 47% of participants | Nearly half of caregivers have meaningful distress that needs addressing |
| Aug 3, 2026 | High secondary traumatic stress | 10% of participants | A minority face severe vicarious trauma; prioritize supports |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Risk factors (multivariable) | Unemployment and >25 cats | Target financial and shared-care interventions to reduce load |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Protective factors (multivariable) | Older age, family support, serenity | Interventions should combine social support and emotion-regulation training |
Implications for qualitative researchers and program designers
Answer: Qualitative researchers should combine scale data with systematic thematic analysis of open responses to surface actionable drivers and local narratives.
According to Costa-Santos et al., 2026 PLOS One, caregivers frequently described practical financial strain and fear of leaving animals without care, which qualitative coding revealed as primary stress narratives.
According to the One Health framing cited by Costa-Santos et al., 2026 and OHHLEP principles, caregiver mental health influences animal welfare and public sanitation, so qualitative findings should be translated into cross-sector recommendations for municipalities and NGOs.
How Evidano helps translate these findings with AI-enabled qualitative research
Problem: Open-ended responses are rich but slow to synthesize
Answer: Evidano accelerates rigorous thematic coding and quantifies theme frequencies across segments to locate high-priority problems.
Evidano is an AI-powered qualitative data analysis platform that helps researchers analyze interviews, open-ended surveys, and documents. Evidano can ingest telephone-transcript text, automatically tag themes such as "financial strain" or "fear of abandonment, " and produce segment cross-tabs (for example, unemployed vs employed caregivers).
Practical link: see features at Evidano features.
Problem: Mixed quantitative and qualitative signals are hard to integrate
Answer: Evidano aligns scale scores with coded themes so teams can correlate PROQOL-5 scores with narrative categories.
Evidano supports importing scale data and transcripts, then producing thematic co-occurrence networks and cross-segment frequency tables so program designers can see, for example, that caregivers reporting financial concerns also show higher PROQOL secondary traumatic stress scores.
Problem: Local stakeholders need quotable evidence quickly
Answer: Evidano generates extractable, source-attributed quote lists and summary dashboards to support grant proposals and municipal briefs.
Evidano can redact PII during transcription and surface representative verbatim quotes tied to themes, enabling ethically safe reporting when citing caregivers' concerns about costs and abandonment, as emphasized in Costa-Santos et al., 2026.
FAQ: qualitative analysis compassion fatigue
How prevalent was secondary traumatic stress in the PLOS One study?
Answer: The PLOS One study reported that 47% of 172 caregivers had moderate secondary traumatic stress and 10% had high levels (Costa-Santos et al., 2026, published August 3, 2026).
This prevalence came from PROQOL-5 subscale scores collected in telephone interviews between May 9, 2025 and August 29, 2025, as reported by Costa-Santos et al., 2026.
Which risk and protective factors mattered most in the study?
Answer: Costa-Santos et al., 2026 found unemployment and caring for colonies larger than 25 cats increased secondary traumatic stress, while older age, family support, and the resilience dimension 'serenity' were protective.
The multivariable linear regression reported unemployment as the strongest standardized predictor after adjustment for other variables, Costa-Santos et al., 2026.
Can AI help analyze the open-ended concerns reported by caregivers?
Answer: Yes, AI-enabled qualitative analysis can speed inductive coding and quantify how often themes like 'lack of funds' and 'fear of abandonment' appear across subgroups.
The PLOS One study used inductive content analysis for the open responses and listed proportions for concerns (for example, 32% feared dying or relocating would leave no one to care for cats, Costa-Santos et al., 2026); AI tools can scale this approach and maintain traceable coding.
Is institutional registration enough to reduce caregiver distress?
Answer: No, Costa-Santos et al., 2026 specifically report that official colony registration and formal institutional support were not significantly associated with lower secondary traumatic stress.
The authors conclude that "institutional support alone is insufficient to mitigate fatigue among informal caregivers, " indicating combined financial and psychosocial strategies are needed.
Conclusion & Next Steps
Answer: Combining scale-based measurement with AI-enabled qualitative synthesis produces actionable briefs for funders and municipal partners.
According to Costa-Santos et al., 2026 PLOS One, interventions should pair material supports (food, veterinary costs) with psychosocial strategies that build serenity and family support.
If your team needs to convert transcripts, open-text survey data, and PROQOL scores into prioritized interventions, AI-assisted thematic + cross-segment analysis speeds that process and preserves audit trails.
Get started with structured qualitative synthesis: Try Evidano for free.