Veterinary Epidemiology
Paws for Thought: Neighborhood Effects on Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Christopher Pierson* Christopher Pierson Kendra Ratnapradipa Christopher Wichman Elizabeth VanWormer Edward Peters
BACKGROUND: In humans, people from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas are a higher risk of multiple health outcomes, including cognitive dysfunction and dementia. Because humans and pets share their neighborhood, a One Health paradigm would suggest that the neighborhood would have similar effects on both.
PURPOSE: To assess the impact of neighborhood disadvantage (ND) on canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD) and canine dementia.
METHODS: We analyzed data from 9,097 members of the Dog Aging Project (DAP) cohort, a nationally sampled cohort of dogs that annually asks owners to assess their dog’s cognitive health and give information about the dog’s general health and behaviors. CCD was measured using the Canine Social and Learned Behavior (CSLB) tool, which asks owners whether their dog is displaying behaviors associated with CCD and if those behaviors have increased in the past 6 months. Higher scores indicate increasing cognitive dysfunction and scores greater than 50 indicate a dog with dementia. The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) score for the dog’s primary block group of residence was used as the measure for ND. We employed longitudinal logistic and linear regression models to examine the relationship between ND and CCD, adjusting for age, breed purity, rurality, and owner’s income and age.
RESULTS: After adjustment, a 10 percentile increase in ADI was associated with a 0.04 unit decrease in CSLB score (p< 0.05). However, no relationship was observed between ND and dementia diagnosis.
CONCLUSION: While our findings suggest that ND is protective against cognitive dysfunction, the small effect size and lack of relationship between ND and dementia diagnosis suggests that the relationship may not be clinically relevant. The discrepancy between these results and known effects in humans warrants further investigation to deepen our understanding of neighborhood impacts on animal health and inform research into its impact on other health outcomes.