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Abstract
Currently, 2 in 3 children in the United States do not meet the National Physical Activity Guidelines, meaning that a majority of youth do not receive the many favorable health outcomes linked to youth physical activity. Novel, effective children’s physical activity interventions are urgently needed. Dog-facilitated physical activity (e.g., dog walking and active play) is a promising intervention target, as dogs support many of the known correlates of children’s physical activity. Prior to intervention development, there is a need for quantifying dog-facilitated physical activity and identifying potential predictors of dog-facilitated physical activity. Purpose: The purposes of this study were to 1) determine the quantity and intensity of objectively-measured dog-facilitated physical activity among dog-owning youth ages 7 to 10 years old, 2) compare youth dog-facilitated physical activity levels using the Bluetooth proximity feature of paired child and dog accelerometers with parent-report measures, and 3) evaluate whether the strength of the child-dog bond, sex of the child, yard size and/or dog size are associated with higher amounts of dog-facilitated youth physical activity. Methods: Children and their dog(s) wore ActiGraph accelerometers with a Bluetooth proximity feature for 7 days. Additionally, parents logged child PA with the family dog(s). Total minutes of dog-facilitated PA and percentage of overall daily moderate to vigorous PA performed with the dog were calculated from both measures. Paired sample t-tests were used to compare the two different measurement methods. One way ANOVA analyses were used to determine whether the strength of the child-dog bond, sex of the child, yard size and/or dog size predicted greater contributions of dog-facilitated physical activity (as measured by device and proximity data) to overall physical activity. Results: 23 children (mean age = 8.5 ± 1.4 years) participated. Dog-facilitated minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) assessed by accelerometer was, on average, 16.6 (10.9) minutes per day versus 7.3 (7.4) minutes per day via parent-report. Parents reported 11.7 (10.9) fewer daily dog-facilitated MVPA minutes than the devices recorded (t(11) = -3.3, p = .008). There were no statistically significant differences between any of the potential predictors and mean daily dog-facilitated MVPA. Conclusions: This study tested a novel approach to measuring dog-facilitated physical activity in youth. Future studies should recruit larger, more diverse samples to evaluate whether these findings are generalizable. This research can be used to inform the development of physical activity interventions leveraging the human-animal bond and dog-facilitated physical activity.
Type
Dissertation (Open Access)
Date
2025-05