General
Scientific Results: Clippers are superior to scissors in the collection of hair for cortisol analysis in companion dogs – A Dog Aging Project preliminary study
Published on March 20, 2024As the scientific community expands its knowledge and methods for chemical analysis (like testing hormone levels), the use of clippers to sample fur may become a useful collection method compared with other procedure methods like blood draws.
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Scientific Results: Analysis of 2,570 responses to Dog Aging Project End of Life Survey demonstrates that euthanasia is associated with cause of death but not age
Published on January 29, 2024Euthanasia is a common manner of death for dogs in the United States. We wanted to find out what factors led owners to make the decision to euthanize their dog. Was it disease or illness? Poor prognosis? Was the dog suffering? Was it a poor quality of life?
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Scientific Results: Dog Size and Patterns of Disease History Across the Canine Age Spectrum: Results from the Dog Aging Project
Published on January 23, 2024Age in dogs is associated with the risk of many diseases, and size is a major factor in that risk. However, the size patterns are complex.
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Scientific Results: Lifetime prevalence of owner-reported medical conditions in the 25 most common dog breeds in the Dog Aging Project Pack
Published on December 8, 2023This paper looked at the most popular dog breeds in the Dog Aging Project (DAP) Pack and the mixed-breed dogs in the DAP Pack to identify which medical conditions owners are reporting most commonly in these different breeds. We also looked at the percentage of dogs in these breeds with no owner-reported medical conditions.
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Standing out from the crowd: What makes the Dog Aging Project unique?
Published on October 24, 2023At its core, the Dog Aging Project is a long-term, longitudinal study looking at aging…
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Inside TRIAD: Introducing the Test of Rapamycin in Aging Dogs
Published on September 20, 2023Many of the insights the Dog Aging Project gathers are through its surveys and activities; however, we also gain valuable information from the veterinary electronic medical records (VEMRs) that we receive. Submission of a VEMR is not necessary to enroll in the Dog Aging Project longitudinal observational study, but some of our smaller cohorts like Precision and TRIAD do require eligible VEMRs for consideration.
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Scientific Results: Big data from small animals: integrating multi-level environmental data into the Dog Aging Project
Published on August 14, 2023This paper describes the infrastructure developed by the Dog Aging Project to integrate and analyze environmental data with the goal of understanding how these factors can affect the health of dogs. Within the Dog Aging Project, data has been collected from dogs’ homes, yards, and neighborhoods. These data can be combined with health information, including medical records, behavioral surveys, genetics, and other biological data, to investigate contextual determinants of health and interactions between contextual and individual-level factors.
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Scientific Results: A review of frailty instruments in human medicine and proposal of a frailty instrument for dogs
Published on August 14, 2023This paper is about frailty – a complex syndrome associated with aging that has become important in human healthcare and research. When humans experience loss of emotional and physical reserves, they are less able to bounce back from stressors. Frailty, even more than chronological age, is associated with increased risk of negative health outcomes and death. There are many different ways to measure or determine frailty in humans, and this paper gives a brief review of frailty in human medicine and research. Assessing frailty is important because while we cannot reverse chronological age, we can intervene to reduce or even reverse frailty. And hopefully, this will be true for dogs as well.
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Scientific Results: Social determinants of health and disease in companion dogs: A cohort study from the Dog Aging Project
Published on June 20, 2023In this study, we explored how the social environment affects the health and well-being of companion dogs. We closely looked at data from over 21,000 dogs that are part of the Dog Aging Project and linked different components of the dog’s environment to their health. Dogs in lower-income houses or areas with more residential turnover had poorer health and less physical mobility. While these adverse environmental factors were linked to poorer health, things that capture positive social environments, like social support (e.g., living with other dogs), were associated with better health outcomes for the dogs, even after taking into account their age and weight. What’s interesting is that not all environmental components had the same impact: social support was 5x more predictive of dog health compared to financial factors. This suggests that having companionship and interaction with other dogs can greatly contribute to a dog’s overall well-being.
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Scientific Results: Development and Validation of a Novel Instrument to Capture Companion Dog Mortality Data: The Dog Aging Project End of Life Survey
Published on May 25, 2023This manuscript details the creation, development, and validation of the End of Life Survey (EOLS), which is used to obtain information about Dog Aging Project participating dogs who have died by gathering the information directly from dog owners.
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