Project Description:
This multi-disciplinary study addresses the challenges of managing overweight and obesity in primary care for a sub-population of adolescents who have at least one dog in the home. The study utilizes dog-ownership as an opportunity to make lower-intensity Comprehensive Behavioral Family Lifestyle Intervention (CBFLI) more motivating for adolescents by helping them to become experts in their own health through becoming literate in the health of their dogs (Rock & Lail, 2009). Effectiveness of a CFBLI that provides health literacy (Institute of Medicine, 2004) in both human and canine health for dog-owning adolescents is anticipated to be enhanced by their obligation to care for their dog (Brown & Rhodes, 2006), and help to enhance their self-efficacy to make behavior changes (Bandura, 1986, 1997). The Specific Aims extend the BodyWorks program to a human-canine scope in two areas: health literacy (Aims 1 & 2) and the use of wireless technology to collect data on physical activity (Aims 3 & 4). Specific Aim 1: Using Photovoice focus group methodology (Varela et al., 2009) and interviewing adolescents and parents in separate groups, to identify their perspectives on the role of their dogs in physical activity (Sirard et al., 2011), and assess their needs regarding health literacy on canine health and behavior, including prevention of dog bites and other adverse events linked to dog ownership (Schalamon et al., 2006). Specific Aim 2: Using our team's expertise in veterinary medicine, human-animal interaction, and animal behavior modification, develop an empirically-based, 7-week module on canine health and behavior, taking stakeholders' needs and perspectives as the foundation. Specific Aim 3: Test the feasibility and acceptability of a concurrent approach to objective measurement of physical activity using wireless Personal Activity Trackers for adolescents, parents, and dogs. Specific Aim 4: Test the feasibility and acceptability of using mobile phones for Ecological Momentary Assessment of types and contexts of adolescent's physical activity (Dunton et al., 2011) with dogs. Our approach leverages human-canine attachment (Linder et al., 2017) to enhance motivation for increasing health literacy (IoM, 2004) and decreasing obesogenic behaviors (Patrick et al., 2013).
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Empowerment Zone, Renewal Community, Urban, Other
