Social determinants of health and disease in companion dogs: a cohort study from the Dog Aging Project

Abstract

Exposure to social environmental adversity is associated with health and survival across many social species, including humans. However, little is known about how these health and mortality effects vary across the lifespan and may be differentially impacted by various components of the environment. Here, we leveraged a relatively new and powerful model for human aging, the companion dog, to investigate which components of the social environment are associated with dog health and how these associations vary across the lifespan. We drew on comprehensive survey data collected on 21,410 dogs from the Dog Aging Project and identified five factors that together explained 33.7% of the variation in a dog's social environment. Factors capturing financial and household adversity were associated with poorer health and lower physical mobility in companion dogs, while factors that captured social support, such as living with other dogs, were associated with better health when controlling for dog age and weight. Notably, the effects of each environmental component were not equal: the effect of social support was 5x stronger than financial factors. The strength of these associations depended on the age of the dog, including a stronger relationship between owner’s age and the dog’s health in younger as compared to older dogs. Taken together, these findings suggest the importance of income, stability, and owner’s age on owner-reported health outcomes in companion dogs and point to potential behavioral and/or environmental modifiers that can be used to promote healthy aging across species.