Canine responses to hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes.
Objective: Anecdotal evidence suggests that domestic dogs may be able to detect hypoglycemia in their human caregivers; scientific investigation of this phenomenon, however, is sorely lacking. This study thus aimed to investigate how pet dogs respond to the hypoglycemic episodes of their owners with...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine Vol. 14; no. 10; pp. 1235 - 1242 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Dec2008
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=105613077&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 105613077 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 10755535 C1G jtl: Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine issn: 10755535 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2008 vid: 14 iid: 10 pid: 1365 pub: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. place: New Rochelle, New York artinfo: ui: 105613077 35923741 2010152244 10.1089/acm.2008.0288 NLM19040375 105613077 ppf: 1235 ppct: 7 formats: tig: atl: Canine responses to hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes. aug: au: Wells DL Lawson SW Siriwardena AN affil: School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK sug: subj: Behavior, Animal Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 Dogs Hypoglycemia Diagnosis Adolescence Adult Aged Confidence Intervals Descriptive Statistics Female Funding Source Glycemic Control Goodness of Fit Chi Square Test Hypoglycemia Symptoms Logistic Regression Male Odds Ratio Questionnaires United Kingdom Human Adolescent: 13-18 years Adult: 19-44 years Aged: 65+ years Female Male ab: Objective: Anecdotal evidence suggests that domestic dogs may be able to detect hypoglycemia in their human caregivers; scientific investigation of this phenomenon, however, is sorely lacking. This study thus aimed to investigate how pet dogs respond to the hypoglycemic episodes of their owners with type 1 diabetes. Methods: Two hundred and twelve dog owners (64.2% female) with medically diagnosed type 1 diabetes participated in the study. All participants owned at least 1 dog. Each person completed a purpose-designed questionnaire developed to collect information on their dogs' responses (if any) to their hypoglycemic episodes. Results: One hundred and thirty-eight (65.1%) respondents indicated that their dog had shown a behavioral reaction to at least one of their hypoglycemic episodes, with 31.9% of animals reacting to 11 or more events. Canine sex, age, breed status, and length of pet ownership were unrelated to hypoglycemia-response likelihood. Thirty-six percent of the sample believed that their dogs reacted most of the times they went 'low'; 33.6% indicated that their pets reacted before they themselves were aware they were hypoglycemic. Dogs' behavioral responses to their owners' hypoglycemic episodes varied. Most animals behaved in a manner suggestive of attracting their owners' attention, for example, vocalizing (61.5%), licking them (49.2%), nuzzling them (40.6%), jumping on top of them (30.4%), and/or staring intently at their faces (41.3%). A smaller proportion showed behavioral responses suggestive of fear, including trembling (7.2%), running away from the owner (5.1%), and/or hyperventilating (2.2%). Conclusions: The findings suggest that behavioral reactions to hypoglycemic episodes in pet owners with type 1 diabetes commonly occur in untrained dogs. Further research is now needed to elucidate the mechanism(s) that dogs use to perform this feat. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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