Influencing Factors And Interventions Of Chinese Urban Residents Dog Walking

This study took the dog walking of domestic owners as research object,collected data through questionnaire and experiment,established the integrated model of the factors affecting Chinese owners'dog walking through three interrelated studies for the first time in China,and conducted the intervention research based on the model.Study1:to understand the physical activity patterns and levels of domestic dog owners,and to exam whether intervention is needed and whether there is potential for intervention.Data were collected from 379 dog owners,including 159 males and 220females,aged 18-70 years,with an age of 32.5±10.3 years old.Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the status quo of dog walking of owners in China.Similar to the results of the study abroad,breeding dogs can increase the owners'dog walking opportunities and to reach a moderate to high level.Among dog owners,32.45%of them reach the moderate level of physical activity and 21.11%reach the high level,but there are still 46.44%has low level while walking their dogs.So there is the necessity of improvement and the possibility of intervention.Study 2:to establish and test an integrated model which is based on social cognitive theory(SCT)and social ecological mode of factors influencing dog walking of domestic owners.Data were collected from 251 participants,including 104 males and 147 females,aged from 21 to 58,with an age of 33.8±11.8 years.The structural equation modeling(SEM)is used to test the structure of the integrated model.The final model fitness is well.The fit indices are?~2=605.6,?~2/df=1.650,CFI=.923,TLI=.912,IFI=.925,NFI=.932,RMSEA=.051.And(1)perceived social support of dog walking from family can directly or indirectly effect self-efficacy of dog walking through owner-specific outcomes,and then effect dog walking;(2)perceived social support for dog walking directly or indirectly affects the sense of obligation/responsibility for dog walking through the outcome expectancy of dog walking,thus affecting the amount of physical activity of dog walking;(3)perceived social support from friends is not significant in the model.Finally,to some extent,the model is suitable for Chinese dog owners and explain the variance of 31%of dog walking.The results shows that the dog walking of urban residents in China is determined by self-efficacy and perceived responsibility of dog walking.The self-efficacy of dog walking is also determined by the perceived social support from family members and dogs and the expectancy of dog walking to owners.At the same time,the sense of responsibility for dog walking is caused by the perceived social support of dog and the expectancy of dog walking results.This conclusion partially supports foreign studies.However,social support for dog walking from dogs is associated with a sense of responsibility rather than self-efficacy,and the perceived social support from friends has no effect on dog walking.Study 3:to test the effectiveness of comprehensive intervention strategy based on the integrated model of study 2.A total of 35 dog owners with low physical activity level in the second study were screened,including 19 in the intervention group and 16 in the control group,ranging from 21 to 49 years old,with an age of29.18±7.93 years old.2(intervention:intervention,control)×3(time:before intervention,1 weeks after intervention,2 weeks after intervention,3 weeks after intervention,4 weeks after intervention,1 week after the end of intervention and 2week after the end of intervention)were used to design a randomized control group mixed repeated measurement experiment for longitudinal intervention study:through the mobile phone WeChat software,the information intervention text was sent to each intervention group participant every day for 4 weeks during the intervention.The control group is sent daily materials that are not related to intervention,physical activity,and dog walking,which are similar in the number of words in the text to the intervention group intervention information.Repeated measures covariance analysis with age of owner as covariate was used to analyze the owner's dog walking,and repeated measures was used to test the effect of intervention on social support,expectation,self-efficacy and the responsibility of dog walking.The intervention program effectively promoted the owners'perception of social support from their dogs and families for the physical activity of dog walking,which led to the improvement of the self-efficacy of dog walking and the sense of responsibility for walking the dogs,and improved their dog walking.The results shows that model of dog walking propose in study 2 could be well tested from an empirical perspective.The overall conclusions are as follow:(1)the main forms of dog walking in China is walking,which can reach a moderate to high level of physical activity,there are necessities and possibilities to interfere with the factors influencing dog walking and physical activity of owners.Among them,women and younger owners had lower levels of physical activity;(2)the hypothetical model explains the amount of physical activity of dog walking in China to some extent.The integrated model base on SCT and social ecological model has a good prediction effect on the amount of dog walking in China.Among them,self-efficacy of dog walking has a stable and maximum effect on the amount of physical activity of dog walking in China,perceived social support from friends of dog walking do no work in the model;(3)short-term and high-frequency intervention design for social support from family and dog had certain effects,can promote and maintain dog walking.