Suchergebnisse

Tourists consider many factors, including health, when choosing travel destinations. The potential for exposure to novel or foreign diseases alone can deter travelers from selecting high-risk locations for disease transmission. The 2015–2016 Zika Virus (ZIKV) outbreak in the Americas and Caribbean prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. This study investigated factors that may contribute to travel avoidance to areas experiencing ZIKV transmission while also considering different levels of health concern and awareness among groups with varying demographics. An online survey was administered February 10–12, 2016 to a sample of U.S. residents (n = 964). Demographics, information about travel behaviors, and levels of health concern were collected. Ordered logit models were employed to assess the impacts of the ZIKV outbreak on travel planning. Respondents giving higher levels of attention to general health were more likely to avoid travel to areas experiencing ZIKV transmission. It is anticipated that the findings of this study may be of interest to public health officials, healthcare providers, and government officials attempting to mitigate impacts of ZIKV. Disease outbreaks in regions of the world typically frequented by vacation or leisure travelers are particularly problematic due to the increased amount of exposure to disease in an immunologically naïve population that may then contribute to the outbreak through their travel plans. Avoiding travel to destinations experiencing outbreaks of disease due to health concerns may be interpreted positively by the public health community but can have negative economic consequences.

AbstractWhile there has been an abundance of studies on the important relationship between physical activity and age in both dogs and humans, studies on dogs have primarily focused on how a dog's biological characteristics, such as their weight, affect the age–activity relationship. To date, there is little knowledge about how this relationship may be associated with contextual- and owner-level characteristics. We leveraged a large and novel data set from the Dog Aging Project (DAP) to investigate the extent to which the age–activity relationship is associated with certain dog and owner characteristics, namely dog size, owner age, and the environment in which they live. Dogs are a unique model for aging research as they are exposed to similar social and environmental elements as humans but have a shorter life span, allowing researchers to observe their entire life course. We find that older dogs are less active than younger dogs; rural dogs are more active than suburban and urban dogs, especially at younger ages; and larger dogs are more active than smaller dogs. These findings are generally consistent with previous studies. However, a surprising finding is that older owners have more active dogs than younger owners. As one of the first studies to utilize the large survey data from the DAP, this study lays the foundation for future investigations to further understand and identify the biological, social, and environmental causes, as well as consequences, of aging.