Dear all,
On Wednesday this week at 4pm, Jade Hooper (University of Stirling) will be talking about
dog-related injuries and their relation to social factors. Please, see below the title and
short abstract for her talk.
This meeting will take place in the Psychology Common Room.
Exploring Social and Locality Variations of Dog Bites in Scotland Using Administrative
Data Sources
Jade Hooper (Speaker); Prof. Paul Lambert; Prof. Hannah Buchanan-Smith; Dr. Tony
Robertson
Background
Previous research has shown that hospital admissions for dog-bites are highest in the most
deprived areas across England and Wales. In Scotland, thus far there has been no rigorous
empirical investigation into social inequalities in dog-related injuries. This study aims
to address this gap through analysis of linked administrative health data from NHS24
calls, A&E and SMR01 records involving dog-related injuries linked to Scotland Census
micro-data. Area-based measures of social circumstance are considered through the SIMD,
along with an exploration of novel, area-level characteristics including measures of local
greenspace, average garden size and dog populations. Individual/household level measures
of social circumstance taken from the Scottish Census are used to compare the
characteristics of individuals with health records involving dog-related injuries to a
random sample of individuals not appearing in the health data sets.
Results
When looking at individual level records and during modelling at aggregate area level,
SIMD was an important factor in all models. Whilst some variation was observed across the
different types of health data, the number of records, incident risk ratios and odds
ratios were all consistently at least 2-3 higher when comparing the most to least deprived
areas. Accounting for dog populations and introducing interaction terms for SIMD decile by
dog population increased the main effect of SIMD. When comparing individual/household
level measures of social circumstance taken from the Scottish Census, occupation-based
measures such as NS-SEC and CAMSIS appeared to be relatively important predictors of risk,
alongside household composition and age, with children disproportionately represented.
Conclusion
Incident rates of dog-related injuries were higher in more deprived areas and
circumstances where individuals may be seen as more socially disadvantaged at the
individual or household level. Social/legal policies related to dog-bites typically don’t
consider social disadvantage in any meaningful way. These results show the importance of
doing so.
Best,
Gema
Schedule for future meetings:
Date
Time
Speaker
Topic
Location
05/10/2022
4pm
Michael Beran (Georgia State University, USA)
Metacognition in primates
Online
12/10/2022
4pm
Claire Hemingway (Texas University, USA)
Bees and bats cognition
Online
19/10/2022
4pm
Kristine Gandia (University of Stirling)
TBC
F2F (Common Room, Psych)
02/11/2022
3-5pm
Joint meeting—BERG & BES
TBC
F2F (Common Room, Psych)
09/11/2022
4pm
Francesca de Petrillo (Newcastle University, UK)
Decision-making in primates
Online
16/11/2022
4pm
Stephen Ferrigno (University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA)
Origins of human thought
Online
23/11/2022
4pm
Sarah Weir (University of Stirling)
TBC
Online
30/11/2022
4pm
Sabrina Brando (University of Stirling)
Individual, leadership, and organisational aspects of human wellbeing in zoos and
aquariums
F2F (Common Room, Psych)
07/12/2022
4pm
Gloria Sabbatini (Istc-CNR Unit of Cognitive Primatology & Primate Center, Italy)
Tool use in primates
Online
14/12/2022
3pm
Elias Garcia Pelegrin (University of Cambridge, UK)
Crows and understanding of magic tricks
Online
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