Future Directions for Research on Human–Animal Interaction in an Aging Population

ABSTRACT

This final paper in the thematic issue, “Human–Animal Interaction and Healthy Human Aging,” highlights and distills key points from the series of papers and provides recommendations for improving and expanding Human–Animal Interaction (HAI) research into healthy human aging. This paper also focuses on translating research to practice and discussing important practical issues related to pet ownership or interaction with companion animals among older adults, and makes specific recommendations for researchers, caregivers, and professionals working with older adults. In addition to issues related to the human side of the equation, we make recommendations for protecting and insuring the health and wellbeing of the animals involved.     

Research Stakeholders’ Views on Benefits and Challenges for Public Health Research Data Sharing in Kenya: The Importance of Trust and Social Relations

Background

There is increasing recognition of the importance of sharing research data within the international scientific community, but also of the ethical and social challenges this presents, particularly in the context of structural inequities and varied capacity in international research. Public involvement is essential to building locally responsive research policies, including on data sharing, but little research has involved stakeholders from low-to-middle income countries.

Methods

Between January and June 2014, a qualitative study was conducted in Kenya involving sixty stakeholders with varying experiences of research in a deliberative process to explore views on benefits and challenges in research data sharing. In-depth interviews and extended small group discussions based on information sharing and facilitated debate were used to collect data. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis, and charting flow and dynamics in debates.

Findings

The findings highlight both the opportunities and challenges of communicating about this complex and relatively novel topic for many stakeholders. For more and less research-experienced stakeholders, ethical research data sharing is likely to rest on the development and implementation of appropriate trust-building processes, linked to local perceptions of benefits and challenges. The central nature of trust is underpinned by uncertainties around who might request what data, for what purpose and when. Key benefits perceived in this consultation were concerned with the promotion of public health through science, with legitimate beneficiaries defined differently by different groups. Important challenges were risks to the interests of study participants, communities and originating researchers through stigmatisation, loss of privacy, impacting autonomy and unfair competition, including through forms of intentional and unintentional ''misuse'' of data. Risks were also seen for science.

Discussion

Given background structural inequities in much international research, building trust in this low-to-middle income setting includes ensuring that the interests of study participants, primary communities and originating researchers will be promoted as far as possible, as well as protected. Important ways of building trust in data sharing include involving the public in policy development and implementation, promoting scientific collaborations around data sharing and building close partnerships between researchers and government health authorities to provide checks and balances on data sharing, and promote near and long-term translational benefits.     

The Human–Animal Interaction Scale: Development and Evaluation

The purpose of this study was to develop the Human–Animal Interaction Scale (HAIS) and evaluate its reliability and validity. The HAIS is a 24-item self-report instrument designed to describe and quantify behaviors performed by humans and nonhuman animals during an episode of interaction (e.g., engaging with a pet, participating in an animal-assisted intervention). Participants were 295 adult volunteers who completed the HAIS in one of several different contexts, including both laboratory and applied settings. The scale was tested across several different species, including companion animals (i.e., dogs and cats), small caged animals (i.e., rats, rabbit, hedgehog), and horses. Analyses indicate good reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.82 overall and alphas of 0.72 and higher across the different species and settings. Test-retest analyses indicate ratings remain consistent up to one week following an interaction. Evidence of construct validity was gathered by comparing HAIS ratings with other well-established measures of related constructs, as well as comparing participant reports with researcher observations. Potential uses in basic and applied research are discussed.     

The Implications of Primate Behavioral Flexibility for Sustainable Human–Primate Coexistence in Anthropogenic Habitats

People are an inescapable aspect of most environments inhabited by nonhuman primates today. Consequently, interest has grown in how primates adjust their behavior to live in anthropogenic habitats. However, our understanding of primate behavioral flexibility and the degree to which it will enable primates to survive alongside people in the long term remains limited. This Special Issue brings together a collection of papers that extend our knowledge of this subject. In this introduction, we first review the literature to identify past and present trends in research and then introduce the contributions to this Special Issue. Our literature review confirms that publications on primate behavior in anthropogenic habitats, including interactions with people, increased markedly since the 2000s. Publications concern a diversity of primates but include only 17% of currently recognized species, with certain primates overrepresented in studies, e.g., chimpanzees and macaques. Primates exhibit behavioral flexibility in anthropogenic habitats in various ways, most commonly documented as dietary adjustments, i.e., incorporation of human foods including agricultural crops and provisioned items, and as differences in activity, ranging, grouping patterns, and social organization, associated with changing anthropogenic factors. Publications are more likely to include information on negative rather than positive or neutral interactions between humans and primates. The contributions to this Special Issue include both empirical research and reviews that examine various aspects of the human–primate interface. Collectively, they show that primate behavior in shared landscapes does not always conflict with human interests, and demonstrate the value of examining behavior from a cost–benefit perspective without making prior assumptions concerning the nature of interactions. Careful interdisciplinary research has the potential to greatly improve our understanding of the complexities of human–primate interactions, and is crucial for identifying appropriate mechanisms to enable sustainable human–primate coexistence in the 21st century and beyond.     

The ‘Disadapted’ Animal: Niko Tinbergen on Human Nature and the Human Predicament

This paper explores ethologist Niko Tinbergen’s path from animal to human studies in the 1960s and 1970s and his views about human nature. It argues, first, that the confluence of several factors explains why Tinbergen decided to cross the animal/human divide in the mid 1960s: his concern about what he called “the human predicament,” his relations with British child psychiatrist John Bowlby, the success of ethological explanations of human behavior, and his professional and personal situation. It also argues that Tinbergen transferred his general adaptationist view of animal behavior to the realm of human biology; here, his concern about disadaptation led him to a view of human behavior that was strongly determined by the species’ evolutionary past, a position that I call evolutionary determinism. These ideas can be seen in the work he carried out with his wife, Elisabeth Tinbergen, on autism. The paper concludes that Tinbergen’s vision of human nature constitutes another version of what anthropologist Clifford Geertz called in 1966 the “stratigraphic” conception of the human: a view of human nature as a composite of levels in which a universal ancestral biological core is superimposed by psychological and cultural layers that represent accidental variation at best and pathological deviation at worst.     

Epidemiological Panel Studies of Older Adults: New Frontiers in the Research on Human– Animal Interaction

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses epidemiological studies of older adults and human–animal interaction (HAI), and potential relevance to future research on HAI and animal-assisted interventions (AAI) in aging populations. Key issues in epidemiological work are discussed, including target populations, treatment/exposures, follow up, and endpoint measures as they relate to interacting with or owning companion animals. In outlining the limits in our current state of knowledge, we also make recommendations for the design and analysis of epidemiological studies to advance research on HAI and aging.     

The making of ethology: The association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, 1936–1986

The paper reviews the history of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour in its 50th anniversary year. Having discussed the founding of the Institute for the Study of Animal Behaviour in 1936, the paper establishes its principal aims, follows its fortunes before and during the war, traces its role in the expansion and institutionalization of ethology in Britainbetween 1945 and 1950, and summarizes its transformation into a flourishing scientific society in the 1950s and 1960s. It is concluded that the history of the Association is, to a striking extent, a microcosm of the making of ethology as a successful scientific discipline.     

How Can Research on Plants Contribute to Promoting Human Health?

One of the most pressing challenges for the next 50 years is to reduce the impact of chronic disease. Unhealthy eating is an increasing problem and underlies much of the increase in mortality from chronic diseases that is occurring worldwide. Diets rich in plant-based foods are strongly associated with reduced risks of major chronic diseases, but the constituents in plants that promote health have proved difficult to identify with certainty. This, in turn, has confounded the precision of dietary recommendations. Plant biochemistry can make significant contributions to human health through the identification and measurement of the many metabolites in plant-based foods, particularly those known to promote health (phytonutrients). Plant genetics and metabolic engineering can be used to make foods that differ only in their content of specific phytonutrients. Such foods offer research tools that can provide significant insight into which metabolites promote health and how they work. Plant science can reduce some of the complexity of the diet-health relationship, and through building multidisciplinary interactions with researchers in nutrition and the pathology of chronic diseases, plant scientists can contribute novel insight into which foods reduce the risk of chronic disease and how these foods work to impact human health.     

On the Human–Animal Boundary

ABSTRACT

A sample of 514 adults completed a postal questionnaire measuring both their empathy with humans (using the Mehrabian and Epstein (1972) Questionnaire for the Measurement of Emotional Empathy) and their empathy with non-human animals (using the Animal Empathy Scale, developed for this study). There was a significant, but modest correlation between the two scales (Kendall's tau=0.26, p<0.001), indicating that although the two types of empathy measure are in some way linked, they are unlikely to tap a single, unitary construct. This conclusion is reinforced by the finding that human- and animal-oriented empathy exhibit different levels of association with different potential sources of variation. Animal-oriented empathy was related to the current ownership of pets (U=19825.5, p<0.0001) and to the ownership of pets during childhood (U= 10271.0, p<0.01), while human-oriented empathy was related to currently having a child or children at home (U= 21020.5, p<0.05).     

Medical Geology: Emerging Discipline on the Ecosystem–Human Health Interface

Medical geology is an emerging discipline that, broadly defined, examines the public health impacts of geologic materials and geologic processes. The scope and range of medical geology include: (1) identifying and characterizing natural and anthropogenic sources of harmful materials in the environment; (2) learning how to predict the movement and alteration of chemical, infectious, and other disease-causing agents over time and space; and (3) understanding how people are exposed to such materials and what can be done to minimize or prevent such exposure. Participants of a Medical Geology Working Group that met recently in Washington, DC, identified lessons learned to date in the development of this new field, noted research gaps that should be addressed, and recommended key priorities and directions for a sustainable future for medical geology.     

Introduction to the Themed Issue on Human–Animal Interaction and Healthy Human Aging

ABSTRACT

In 2016, the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) developed a research focus on the benefits and potential risks associated with pets among older adults. With the goal of developing a roadmap for human–animal interaction (HAI) research in older people residing in both the community and institutions, GSA convened a workshop of international experts and policy-makers in the fields of aging and HAI. The status of current knowledge was shared on the success factors for healthy aging and the potential challenges (GSA, 2016). Participants considered what roles pets might play in the lives of older adults and their potential to mitigate loneliness, social isolation, and depression, and to enhance mobility and cognitive function. Existing research was shared to provide insights into the ways in which pets can impact older adults and their caregivers and to identify where further research is needed. This paper introduces a series of papers from that meeting, with some additional papers from meeting attendees to expand on the topics covered and provide key perspectives and gaps in information needed, as a foundation for those considering research into this topic. Although HAI/Animal-Assistant Intervention (AAI) research is in its infancy, there is some evidence that pet ownership or animal interaction can have major benefits for many older adults. At the same time, there are some risks to both the pet and the older adult that need to be addressed. Innovative approaches to both AAIs and the ways to overcome challenges are presented in this themed issue of Anthrozoös. Our hope is that the findings from these reviews and reports will stimulate additional work in this area.     

Measuring the Strength of Human–Animal Bonds in Zoos

Repeated interactions within individual human and animal dyads can lead to the establishment of human–animal relationships (HARs), which may vary in quality from good to bad, defined in terms of the positivity (e.g., friendly contact, play) or negativity (e.g., aggression) of the interactions on which they are based. Particularly good HARs can be regarded as Human– Animal Bonds (HABs) if they are reciprocal and promote wellbeing in both parties. Although there is extensive evidence of the effects of HARs in agricultural animals and HABs in companion animals, there has been less investigation of these relationships in zoos, even though the development of HARs/HABs between zoo animals and their keepers could have important consequences for the welfare of both. Here we apply a modified version of the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS) in a zoo setting to quantify the strength of attachment of a sample of 22 keepers to the animals in their care at the zoo (ZA), in comparison with their attachment to their companion animals at home (PA). Results showed that mean PA scores (47.54 ± 3.6) were significantly higher than mean ZA scores (32.89 ± 2.6; t = –5.16, df = 13, p < 0.001), indicating stronger attachment to the companion animals. PA scores were lower in keepers who thought it inappropriate to have a bond with a zoo animal, compared with those who deemed it appropriate. Thus, HABs do appear to occur in the zoo context, though they are weaker than those developed in the home. This work also shows that a modified LAPS questionnaire is a suitable instrument for further investigation of HABs in zoos.     

Zoological Research Call for papers The 1st issue,2013,"Special Issue for Primates and Animal Models of Human Diseases"

To whom it may concern:Co-organized by the Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province and Zoological Research,two special issues for Primates and Animal models of Human diseases [32(1),2011 & 33(1),2012] have been released.The first special issue [32(1),2011] has significantly increased the journal hits on PubMed(500 times more than last month) and during the next couple of months,the editorial office     

Loneliness,Depression, and Physical Activity in Older Adults: The Therapeutic Role of Human–Animal Interactions

ABSTRACT

The global population of older persons is projected in 2050 to reach approximately 2.1 billion. As people age, feelings of loneliness, depression, and physical inactivity often occur due to a multitude of reasons. These feelings may manifest and cause adverse health outcomes. With the predicted increase of older adults worldwide, the prevalence of loneliness, depression, and physical inactivity may also worsen over time if unattended. Since older adults are subject to psychological and physical changes as they age, it is important to find creative ways to address the health needs of this growing population. Therefore, interventions are needed to prevent or decrease the psychological and physical challenges that older adults face. This paper examines existing literature on human–animal interactions (HAIs) in the lives of older adults in relation to concepts such as loneliness, depression, and physical activity. The psychological and physical health benefits of animals for older adults include decreased loneliness and depression, improved cardiovascular health, and increased physical activity. There is mounting evidence supporting the therapeutic psychological and physical health benefits of animals in the lives of older adults. However, there are practical and financial implications that must be considered. Methodological considerations and future directions for human–animal interaction research with older adults are also discussed.     

Mortality Transmitters – New Instrument for Animal Loss Research on Norwegian Ranges

In 1988, 315 lambs from 4 sheep (Ovis aries) herds comprised of 1003 animals were marked with silent mortality transmitters in Gammeldalen in Hedmark County, southern Norway. The aim was to identify causes of death and the so-called “hidden loss” of lambs on summer range. A total of 22 animals, 19 lambs and 3 ewes were found dead. Of these, 18 lambs were marked with radio transmitters. A total of 10 animals died of disease (45.5 %) and 12 were killed by predators (54.5 %). Of the 18 radio-located lambs, 6 died of disease (33.3 %) and 12 due to predators (66.7 %). Various common lamb diseases were diagnosed, e.g. lung, thoracic and intestinal infections. Eleven lambs were killed by lynx (Lynx lynx), a 12th was found chased to exhaustion, presumably by a predator. Use of mortality transmitters is concluded to be useful in investigating sheep losses on Norwegian ranges.     

First Announcement of and Call for Papers for ＂Forum on Genetics Progress and Human Health＂

＂Forum on Genetics Progress and Human Health＂ will be held at Yunnan University in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, in November, 2007. The forum focuses on the current progress and future directions in all major aspects of human genetics and medical genetics. The submitted papers written in English will be considered for publication in Journal of Genetics and Genomics after peer-review and papers in Chinese in Hereditas （Beijing）. Papers in the following areas are encouraged for submission and outstanding papers will be selected for oral presentation in the forum.     

First Announcement of and Call for Papers for ＂Forum on Genetics Progress and Human Health＂

＂Forum on Genetics Progress and Human Health＂ will be held at Yunnan University in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, in November, 2007. The forum focuses on the current progress and future directions in all major aspects of human genetics and medical genetics. The submitted papers written in English will be considered for publication in Journal of Genetics and Genomics after peer-review and papers in Chinese in Hereditas （Beijing）. Papers＇ in the following areas are encouraged for submission and outstanding papers will be selected for oral presentation in the forum.