General
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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Scientific Results: Purpose, Partnership, and Possibilities: The Implementation of the Dog Aging Project Biobank
Published on February 24, 2023In this paper, we describe the partnership between the Dog Aging Project and the Cornell Veterinary Biobank (CVB) at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine to create the Dog Aging Project Biobank, a resource that stores and distributes biospecimens collected from Precision and TRIAD cohort participants.
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Scientific Results: Associations between physical activity and cognitive dysfunction in older companion dogs
Published on October 12, 2022[vc_message message_box_color=”violet” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-paw”]Posts in our Scientific Results series introduce recent papers published in the…
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Inside Science: Characteristics of Scientifically Useful Veterinary Electronic Medical Records
Published on August 8, 2022Many 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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Dog and Human Genetics: Similarity and Difference
Published on July 26, 2022Did you know that dogs and people share over 17,000 special genes called orthologs? Each pair of orthologs is derived from the same common ancestor via vertical descent (speciation) and they tend to have similar functions. They are one of the main reasons why your pup is such an invaluable comparative animal model for studying human health. In fact, humans and dogs have numerous similarities even in those parts of the genome that aren’t genes (the noncoding part of the genome). When it comes to better understanding human health, your pup is our best friend!
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Inside Science: Cross-sectional versus longitudinal study design
Published on July 18, 2022[vc_message message_box_color=”violet” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-paw”]Posts in our Inside Science series provide you with the ins and…
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Scientific Results: Once-daily feeding is associated with better health in companion dogs
Published on June 14, 2022In this paper, we used data collected from the Dog Aging Project Pack to better understand the relationship between our dogs’ health and their diet—and specifically, how often they are fed each day. This work was motivated by data in laboratory rodents showing intermittent fasting can lead to better health and cognitive outcomes.
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Inside the Measurement & Mobility Activities
Published on June 2, 2022It can be heartbreaking to watch your once agile pup grow old and slow down….
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