Veterinary Epidemiology
Neighborhood Effects on Canine Health: Investigating Disadvantage and Preventable Diseases Christopher Pierson* Christopher Pierson Kendra Ratnapradipa Christopher Wichman Elizabeth VanWormer Edward Peters
BACKGROUND: A One Health paradigm suggests that neighborhood disadvantage (ND), known to be associated with negative health outcomes in humans, may have similar effects on companion animals living in the same neighborhood. Veterinarians recommends that dogs be vaccinated for 9 diseases and receive regular heartworm prevention.
PURPOSE: To assess the impact of ND on vaccine preventable diseases in dogs.
METHODS: This study used the Dog Aging Project, a large nation-wide cohort of dogs which asks owners to annually report if their dog developed any health conditions and give information on the dog’s lifestyle. This analysis included 15,516 dogs: 8,091 with 1 follow-up and 8,425 with 2 follow-up surveys. ND was measured using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) of the dog’s block group of residence. This analysis focused on the 5 diseases with incident cases: canine influenza, heartworm, kennel cough, leptospirosis, and Lyme disease. We used mixed-effect longitudinal logistic regression to model each disease individually with different covariates for each disease.
RESULTS: After adjusting for vaccination status, flea and tick preventative use, and human Lyme disease incidence in the dog’s state, a one percentile increase in nationally ranked ADI was associated with a very slight increase in the odds of a dog having Lyme disease in the past year (OR: 1.01, 95% CI: 1.00 – 1.02). Nationally ranked ADI was not associated with any of the other disease studied, nor was state-ranked ADI associated with any diseases.
CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that ND does not impact vaccine preventable diseases in dogs. While this analysis may not directly inform veterinary care, the findings could be used to inform research on the impacts of a neighborhood on human residents. Factors that affect both canine and human health could be deprioritized in favor of factors that are unique to humans in research trying to understand ND’s impact on human health.