Veterinary Epidemiology
Neighborhood Disadvantage and Vaccine Preventable Diseases in Dogs Christopher Pierson* Christopher Pierson Kendra Ratnapradipa Elizabeth VanWormer Christopher Wichman Edward Peters
A One Health model suggests that a dog’s neighborhood has a similar impact on its health as in humans. In humans, increasing neighborhood disadvantage (ND) has been associated with negative impacts on health outcomes; however, the impact of ND on companion animal health is understudied.
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) recommends companion dogs be vaccinated for distemper, adenovirus, parvovirus, parainfluenza, and rabies, as well as Leptospira, Lyme disease, Bordetella, and canine influenza depending on the dog’s risk. This analysis assesses the impact of ND on the development of vaccine-preventable diseases in dogs, with the exception of distemper, parvovirus, and rabies, which had no cases during the study period.
The Dog Aging Project (DAP) is a longitudinal cohort of dogs across the United States. Although enrollment in the DAP is ongoing, this analysis was limited to the 2021 DAP dataset consisting of 15,720 dogs with information on disease status and their neighborhood, at both baseline and one annual follow-up.
This study used mixed-effects longitudinal logistic regression to examine the association between ND and common canine infectious diseases. Each disease was modeled individually. Cases were defined as dogs who developed the disease between baseline and follow-up, and non-cases were all other dogs in the cohort who did not develop that disease, independent of their diagnosis with another diseases.
Dogs in more disadvantaged neighborhoods had lower odds of developing kennel cough during the study period (OR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.46, 0.90) after adjustment for the number of days at daycare per month and vaccination status. No other diseases were associated with ND (p-value> 0.05).
This observed inverse relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and kennel cough could inform veterinarians when prioritizing vaccinations with owners. This relationship may result from improvements to the neighborhood that increase dog contact, such as dog parks.