When veterinarians treat plus-sized pets: Insights for veterinary practice.

Background: Obesity of companion animals in Canada is becoming a problem in veterinary practice. Cats and dogs, in particular, are increasingly overweight. However, prevention and treatment present challenges.

Animal Protection, Law Enforcement, and Occupational Health: Qualitative Action Research Highlights the Urgency of Relational Coordination in a Medico-Legal Borderland.

Across Canada and internationally, laws exist to protect animals and to stop them from becoming public nuisances and threats. The work of officers who enforce local bylaws protects both domestic animals and humans. Despite the importance of this work, research in this area is emergent, but growing.

Leashes, Litterboxes, and Lifelines: Exploring Volunteer-Based Pet Care Assistance Programs for Older Adults.

At the convergence of population aging and pet-ownership, community stakeholders are well-positioned to support older adults' relationships with companion animals through age-related transitions in health and living arrangements. In this study's setting, a volunteer-based pet care assistance program launched in 2017 to provide practical assistance with pet care for socially disadvantaged, community-dwelling older adults. This case study explored the impacts and feasibility of this and similar programs via (i) an Internet-based environmental scan to compare similar programs and (ii) qualitative interviews with a sampling of diverse community stakeholders ( = 9).

Débats autour des races canines et de la santé publique à Montréal et au Québec (2016-2019).

Objectives: We examine the public policies that have been formulated to reduce the incidence of dog bites. We do so to encourage the adoption of policies aligned with One Health promotion.

Methods: This case-study research involved an ethnographic approach.

One Health and reconciliation: media portrayals of dogs and Indigenous communities in Canada.

This qualitative media analysis explores how the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) portrayed 'dog problems' and their solutions in Indigenous communities in Canada from 2008 through 2018. We apply a One Health framework to demonstrate how human, animal, and the socio-environmental health are interconnected, which aligns more explicitly with Indigenous worldviews. Through this analysis, we respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Calls to Action, specifically Action 19 (health inequity) and Action 84 (media).

From more-than-human solidarity to multi-species biographical value: insights from a veterinary school about ethical dilemmas in One Health promotion.

This article features a partnership between a veterinary school and a charity that aims to enhance the wellbeing of low-income people. Through this partnership, the charity periodically hosts veterinary clinics for clients and their pets. Even as the veterinarians and veterinary students duly examine people's pets, these pop-up clinics aim to help people and their pets.

Disruptive Solidarity or Solidarity Disrupted? A Dialogical Narrative Analysis of Economically Vulnerable Older Adults' Efforts to Age in Place with Pets.

Over one-third of older adults in many countries have a companion animal, and pets may harbor health-promoting potential. Few studies have considered pet-ownership in relation to economic vulnerability, and pet-ownership has not been often considered within policy efforts to promote ageing-in-place. We conducted a mixed methods case study to understand perspectives of both community agencies that support ageing-in-place and older adults themselves.

Beyond bare bones: critical, theoretically engaged qualitative research in public health.

While qualitative inquiry has been a part of the Canadian Journal of Public Health (CJPH) for many years, CJPH does not yet have the reputation as a home for qualitative research that has a critical focus and that is cqqqonversant with contemporary developments in social theory and qualitative methodology. This paper describes efforts to establish CJPH as a welcoming home for critical, theoretically engaged qualitative research in public health. The paper introduces the Special Section that heralds the forward vision for qualitative research at CJPH.

The Spillover Effect of a Flood on Pets and Their People: Implications for Rental Housing.

When disasters strike, companion animals (pets) matter. Emergency planning for them is a key aspect of disaster preparedness, especially considering that people may delay evacuation out of concern for their pets. Temporary boarding options for pets are important; however, caregivers (owners) must ultimately return to permanent housing.

Pets, Social Participation, and Aging-in-Place: Findings from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study was to assess whether pet ownership contributes to social participation and life satisfaction for older adults. We used baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) for this purpose, and logistic regression models to estimate associations between social participation and life satisfaction for pet owners and non-owners. One third of all older adults (≥ 65 years, n = 7,474) in our sample reported pet ownership.

"Pets Negotiable": How Do the Perspectives of Landlords and Property Managers Compare with Those of Younger Tenants with Dogs?

Previous research has shown that housing insecurity contributes to animal relinquishment and that tenants with dogs face disadvantages in the rental market. Still, little is known about how dog owners navigate rental markets, nor how landlords and property managers perceive dogs and other pets. This case study reports on in-depth interviews with younger tenants with dogs and on open-ended survey responses from landlords and property managers.

Feline Obesity in Veterinary Medicine: Insights from a Thematic Analysis of Communication in Practice.

Feline obesity has become a common disease and important animal welfare issue. Little is known about how, or how often, veterinarians and feline-owning clients are addressing obesity during clinical appointments. The purpose of this qualitative study was to characterize verbal and non-verbal communication between veterinarians and clients regarding feline obesity.

Dog-bites, rabies and One Health: Towards improved coordination in research, policy and practice.

Dog-bites and rabies are neglected problems worldwide, notwithstanding recent efforts to raise awareness and to consolidate preventive action. As problems, dog-bites and rabies are entangled with one another, and both align with the concept of One Health. This concept emphasizes interdependence between humans and non-human species in complex socio-ecological systems.

Supportive neighbourhood built characteristics and dog-walking in Canadian adults.

Objectives: Our study objectives were to: 1) estimate differences in perceptions of the neighbourhood built environment among non-dog-owners, owners who walk their dogs (dog-walkers) and owners who do not walk their dogs (non-dog-walkers), and 2) estimate associations between perceptions of the neighbourhood built environment and dog-walking frequency.

Method: A random cross-section of Calgary adults completed telephone interviews during August-October 2007 (n = 2,199, response rate = 33.6%) or January-April 2008 (n = 2,223, response rate = 36.

Changes in visitor profiles and activity patterns following dog supportive modifications to parks: A natural experiment on the health impact of an urban policy.

Urban parks are important settings for physical activity, but few natural experiments have investigated the influences of park modifications on activity patterns and visitor profiles.We assessed the impact of implementing a municipal policy on off-leash dogs in city parks in Calgary (Alberta, Canada). Systematic observation undertaken in 2011 and 2012 within four parks captured patterns of use, activities, and visitors׳ characteristics.

Reported off-leash frequency and perception of risk for gastrointestinal parasitism are not associated in owners of urban park-attending dogs: A multifactorial investigation.

Associations between park use and infections with gastrointestinal (GI) parasites in dogs (Canis familiaris) have been previously observed, suggesting park use may pose risks for infection in dogs, and potentially, in humans. This study was conducted to establish the overall level of perceived risk of parasitism in dogs, the frequency of unleashing dogs in parks, and to determine if dog owners' risk perceptions of parasite transmission among humans and dogs are associated with the reported frequency of unleashing dogs. From June to September 2010, 635 surveys were administered to dog owners in nine city parks in Calgary, Alberta, by the lead author to explore dog-walking behaviors in parks under differing leashing regulations.

Public health ethics and more-than-human solidarity.

This article contributes to the literature on One Health and public health ethics by expanding the principle of solidarity. We conceptualise solidarity to encompass not only practices intended to assist other people, but also practices intended to assist non-human others, including animals, plants, or places. To illustrate how manifestations of humanist and more-than-human solidarity may selectively complement one another, or collide, recent responses to Hendra virus in Australia and Rabies virus in Canada serve as case examples.

Policies on pets for healthy cities: a conceptual framework.

Drawing on the One Health concept, and integrating a dual focus on public policy and practices of caring from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, we outline a conceptual framework to help guide the development and assessment of local governments' policies on pets. This framework emphasizes well-being in human populations, while recognizing that these outcomes relate to the well-being of non-human animals. Five intersecting spheres of activity, each associated with local governments' jurisdiction over pets, are presented: (i) preventing threats and nuisances from pets, (ii) meeting pets' emotional and physical needs, (iii) procuring pets ethically, (iv) providing pets with veterinary services and (v) licensing and identifying pets.

Social inequalities in body weight and physical activity: exploring the role of fitness centers.

Fitness centers are a viable option for physical activity, particularly in climates with significant weather variation. Due to variation in economic and social expressions ofexclusivity, fitness centers may have some relation to social inequalities in physical inactivity and related health outcomes; thus, our objective was to explore this relation. Using publicly available data and guided by Bourdieu's theory of habitus, we classified fitness centers in Calgary, Canada, on three dimensions of exclusivity (economic, social, and appearance).

A media advocacy intervention linking health disparities and food insecurity.

Media advocacy is a well-established strategy for transmitting health messages to the public. This paper discusses a media advocacy intervention that raised issues about how the public interprets messages about the negative effects of poverty on population health. In conjunction with the publication of a manuscript illustrating how income-related food insecurity leads to disparities related to the consumption of a popular food product across Canada (namely, Kraft Dinner®), we launched a media intervention intended to appeal to radio, television, print and Internet journalists.

Unleashing their potential: a critical realist scoping review of the influence of dogs on physical activity for dog-owners and non-owners.

Background: Dog-owners tend to be more physically active than non-owners; however, dogs have also been shown to inhibit physical activity for non-owners, under some circumstances.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review to identify studies pertaining to the influence of dogs on physical activity for both dog-owners and non-owners, and adopted a critical realist orientation to draw inferences about the positive and negative impact of dogs via their affect on physical and social environments.

Results: We identified 35 studies from disparate literatures for review.

Do researchers use pharmacists' communication as an outcome measure? A scoping review of pharmacist involvement in diabetes care.

Objectives: Pharmacy practice increasingly revolves around obtaining and interpreting information. We investigated whether and how pharmacy practice researchers design their studies in ways that acknowledge verbal communication between pharmacists and patients with diabetes.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review of pharmacists' interventions with patients previously diagnosed as having diabetes with the aim of assessing how many used communication (quality and quantity) as an outcome measure.

Harnessing social networks along with consumer-driven electronic communication technologies to identify and engage members of 'hard-to-reach' populations: a methodological case report.

Background: Sampling in the absence of accurate or comprehensive information routinely poses logistical, ethical, and resource allocation challenges in social science, clinical, epidemiological, health service and population health research. These challenges are compounded if few members of a target population know each other or regularly interact. This paper reports on the sampling methods adopted in ethnographic case study research with a 'hard-to-reach' population.