What Will Happen to This Dog? A Qualitative Analysis of Rehoming Organisations' Pre-adoption Dog Behaviour Screening Policies and Procedures

Rehoming organisations often undertake some type of behaviour evaluation to determine dogs' suitability for rehoming and/or the type of suitable home. Assessments can carry considerable weight in determining dogs' fates. Although evaluation of the validity and reliability of any test is important, a more fundamental consideration is if the nature of the information sought and the weight given to this in organisations' decision making is of more than anecdotal value. Therefore, this study's aim was to conduct a qualitative analysis of organisations' pre-adoption dog behaviour screenings and potential justifications, comparing this with the available scientific evidence. A written enquiry was sent electronically to rehoming organisations in the UK and US from February 2016-July 2017. Of 73 respondents, the majority conducted assessments for all dogs. Using a thematic analysis, nine themes and 71 sub-themes emerged concerning the types of information respondents aim to gather from assessments. The majority of respondents used, at least partially, pass/fail scoring, i.e., certain outcomes would lead to dogs being deemed unadoptable. Forty-one sub-themes and one theme were identified as potentially leading to a dog being deemed unadoptable. The evidence base for these factors was identified from the scientific literature relating to: increased risk for relinquishment, impact on a dog's quality of life, and human safety risk. Evidence supported 10 factors: “aggression towards people”, “aggression towards cats or other animals”, “aggression towards dogs”, “biting or snapping”, “resource guarding”, “activity level or exercise needs”, “destructiveness”, “housetrained”, “fearfulness”, and “knowledge of basic commands and/or general training”. Of those, seven were associated only with relinquishment risk, two (“resource guarding”, “knowledge of basic commands”) with human safety risk, and one (“fearfulness”) with both. Thus, for >85% of characteristics organisations deemed important for dogs' adoptability, scientific evidence to support this is lacking. More research is needed to investigate the value of behaviour assessments, especially concerning the assessment of factors that could pose a public safety risk. However, given the current lack of scientific support for many decisions regarding dogs' rehoming suitability and recognised pressure on resources, it is suggested that organisations should focus on pre-adoption adopter education and post-adoption support.

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Can This Dog Be Rehomed to You? A Qualitative Analysis and Assessment of the Scientific Quality of the Potential Adopter Screening Policies and Procedures of Rehoming Organisations

Frontiers in Veterinary Science ◽

10.3389/fvets.2020.617525 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Author(s):

Karen E. Griffin ◽

Elizabeth John ◽

Tom Pike ◽

Daniel S. Mills

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Analysis ◽

Control Measures ◽

Scientific Quality ◽

Screening Process ◽

Screening Criteria ◽

Potential Adopter ◽

Policies And Procedures ◽

Types Of Information ◽

The Uk

Unwanted dogs are an international problem, and rehoming organisations are tasked with finding many of them appropriate homes. Whilst the processes involved in assessing dogs' suitability for rehoming have received considerable academic attention, the policies and procedures organisations employ for screening potential adopters, which are equally as important to dogs' outcomes, appear to be largely overlooked. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a qualitative analysis of rehoming organisations' adopter screening processes in order to gain insight into what is being done, the extent to which this appears to have any scientific rationale, and what other factors might be driving the process. A written enquiry was sent to organisations in the UK; topics addressed included whether they use a standardised screening process, whether they interview potential adopters and what information is gathered during the interview, and how they score responses. Information was received from 82 respondents. Pre-adoption home visits were the most commonly used method. Self-administered questionnaires were the most standardised method. Using a thematic analysis, ten themes emerged from the types of information gathered during the screening process; 31 characteristics could lead an adopter being deemed unsuitable to adopt a dog. Evidence to potentially support these was found for only eight of them in the academic literature relating to risk factors for relinquishment and human safety risk. The inclusion of some of the characteristics considered important was thought to be for the purpose of ensuring a good quality of life for a dog, but there is a lack of relevant research investigating this. Organisations seem to invest considerable resources into screening potential adopters, but there is limited scientific, and sometimes logical, rationale for this. A further concern relates to the quality of the assessment processes, which show little evidence of quality control measures. Until the necessary research is conducted, it could be argued, from a pragmatic perspective, that organisations should relax their strict screening criteria, and focus their resources on ensuring owners are fully prepared for the changes in their life associated with the inclusion of a new dog in their home and supporting them as necessary.

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Citizen Science and Food: A Review

10.46756/sci.fsa.nao903 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Christian Reynolds ◽

Libby Oakden ◽

Sarah West ◽

Rachel Pateman ◽

Chris Elliott

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Research Priorities ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Learning Opportunities ◽

Research Community ◽

Geographic Spread ◽

Chemical Contaminant ◽

The Uk

Citizen science and food is part of a new programme of work to explore how we can involve the communities we serve when building the evidence-base on which policy decisions are made. Citizen science is an approach that can provide high volumes of data with a wide geographic spread. It is relatively quick to deploy and allows access to evidence we would ordinarily have difficulty collating. This methodology has been endorsed by the European Commission for Research, Science and Innovation. There is no one size fits all definition, but citizen science projects involves engaging with communities and asking them to be part of the project, either through engaging them in data collection or through other ways of co-creation. For participants, citizen science offers learning opportunities, the satisfaction of contributing to scientific evidence and the potential to influence policy. It can also give us data which is high in volume, has wide geographical spread, is relatively quick to deploy and that we couldn’t access any other way. Projects using these methods often involve engaging with communities and asking them to be part of the project. This can be either through working with them in data collection, or through co-creation. This report demonstrates that the research community are already undertaking numerous pieces of research that align with FSA’s evidence needs. This includes examples from the UK and other global communities. Participants in such research have collected data on topics ranging from food preparation in the home to levels of chemical contaminant in foods. The findings of this report outline that citizen science could allow the FSA to target and facilitate more systematic engagement with UK and global research communities, to help address key research priorities of the FSA.

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The UK Government agrees to create the world's largest marine reserve around the Pitcairn Islands, a UK Overseas Territory in the South Pacific

Pacific Conservation Biology ◽

10.1071/pc14916 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 108 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Terence P. Dawson

Keyword(s):

Scientific Evidence ◽

Marine Reserve ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Concerted Effort ◽

Members Of Parliament ◽

The Pacific ◽

Advocacy Campaigns ◽

The Pacific Ocean ◽

Uk Government ◽

The Uk

In March 2015, the UK Government announced their intention to create the World’s largest marine reserve in the territorial waters of the Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific Ocean. This achievement followed a concerted effort by a consortium of scientists, environmental campaigners and Members of Parliament, who engaged cooperatively in the building of the scientific evidence base and advocacy campaigns.

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Socioeconomic status as a risk factor for dementia death: individual participant meta-analysis of 86 508 men and women from the UK

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.bp.112.119479 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 203 (1) ◽

pp. 10-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Tom C. Russ ◽

Emmanuel Stamatakis ◽

Mark Hamer ◽

John M. Starr ◽

Mika Kivimäki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Full Time ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Individual Participant ◽

Occupational Social Class ◽

The Uk ◽

Meta Analyses ◽

A Current

BackgroundLife-course socioeconomic factors may have a role in dementia aetiology but there is a current paucity of studies. Meta-analyses of individual participant data would considerably strengthen this evidence base.AimsTo examine the association between socioeconomic status in early life and adulthood with later dementia death.MethodIndividual participant meta-analysis of 11 prospective cohort studies (1994–2004, n = 86508).ResultsLeaving full-time education at an earlier age was associated with an increased risk of dementia death in women (fully adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for age ⩽14 v. age ⩾16: HR = 1.76, 95% Cl 1.23–2.53) but not men. Occupational social class was not statistically significantly associated with dementia death in men or women.ConclusionsLower educational attainment in women was associated with an increased risk of dementia-related death independently of common risk behaviours and comorbidities.

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AMR Consumer Perceptions Survey

10.46756/sci.fsa.elb852 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rebecca Gillespie ◽

Maya King

Keyword(s):

Action Plan ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Consumer Perceptions ◽

Consumer Survey ◽

National Action Plan ◽

Food Standards ◽

The Uk ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

Over Time

As part of the UK national action plan on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is working to improve the scientific evidence base around consumer perceptions and understanding. A consumer survey was carried out in 2016 and 2019, and replicated in 2021, to understand current views and awareness, and to identify any changes over time.

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Mine water heat and heat storage research opportunities at the UK Geoenergy Observatory in Glasgow, UK

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1977 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alison Monaghan ◽

Vanessa Starcher ◽

Hugh Barron ◽

Fiona Fordyce ◽

Helen Taylor-Curran ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mine Water ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Open Data ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Geothermal Heat ◽

Resource Potential ◽

Resource Sustainability ◽

Heating And Cooling ◽

The Uk ◽

And Storage

<p>Mine water geothermal heat production and storage can provide a decarbonised source of energy for space heating and cooling, however the large resource potential has yet to be exploited widely. Besides economic, regulatory and licensing barriers, geoscientific uncertainties such as detailed understanding of thermal and hydrogeological subsurface processes, resource sustainability and potential environmental impacts remain.</p><p>The UK Geoenergy Observatory in Glasgow is a research infrastructure for investigating shallow, low-temperature coal mine water heat energy resources available in abandoned and flooded mine workings at depths of around 50-90 m. It is an at-scale &#8216;underground laboratory&#8217; of 12 boreholes, surface monitoring equipment and open data. The Glasgow Observatory is accepting requests for researchers and innovators to undertake their own experiments, test sensors and methods to increase the scientific evidence base and reduce uncertainty for this shallow geothermal technology.</p>

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So near yet so far: why won’t the UK prescribe medical cannabis?

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038687 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. e038687 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David Nutt ◽

Steve Bazire ◽

Lawrence D Phillips ◽

Anne Katrin Schlag

Keyword(s):

Patient Reported Outcomes ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Medical Cannabis ◽

Medicinal Use ◽

Patient Reported ◽

The Uk ◽

Improve Patient ◽

Gain Access

Although cannabis-based products for medicinal use are now legal in the UK, it is still challenging for patients to gain access, and only very few National Health Service prescriptions have been written to date. This paper attempts to make sense of why the UK lags behind so many other countries which also have legalised medical cannabis. From consulting with parents and patients, prescribers, pharmacists and decision-makers it seems that there are a series of distinct barriers to prescribing that need to be overcome in order to improve patient access to medical cannabis in the UK. These include concerns about the perceived lack of scientific evidence. To alleviate these concerns, we highlight the importance of patient-centred approaches including patient-reported outcomes, pharmacoepidemiology and n=1 trials, which can contribute to the development of the evidence base for medical cannabis. We hope that this paper will help policymakers and prescribers understand the challenges to prescribing and so help them develop approaches to overcome the current situation which is detrimental to patients.

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Medical cannabis in the UK: From principle to practice

Journal of Psychopharmacology ◽

10.1177/0269881120926677 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 34 (9) ◽

pp. 931-937

Author(s):

Anne Katrin Schlag ◽

David S Baldwin ◽

Michael Barnes ◽

Steve Bazire ◽

Rachel Coathup ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Profession ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Patient Survey ◽

Chronic Illnesses ◽

Medical Cannabis ◽

Medical Problems ◽

Patient Reported ◽

Recent Patient ◽

The Uk

Background: In the UK, medical cannabis was approved in November 2018, leading many patients to believe that the medicine would now be available on the NHS. Yet, to date, there have been only 12 NHS prescriptions and less than 60 prescriptions in total. In marked contrast, a recent patient survey by the Centre for Medical Cannabis (Couch, 2020) found 1.4 m people are using illicit cannabis for medical problems. Aims: Such a mismatch between demand and supply is rare in medicine. This article outlines some of the current controversies about medical cannabis that underpin this disparity, beginning by contrasting current medical evidence from research studies with patient-reported outcomes. Outcomes: Although definite scientific evidence is scarce for most conditions, there is significant patient demand for access to medical cannabis. This disparity poses a challenge for prescribers, and there are many concerns of physicians when deciding if, and how, to prescribe medical cannabis which still need to be addressed. Potential solutions are outlined as to how the medical profession and regulators could respond to the strong demand from patients and families for access to medical cannabis to treat chronic illnesses when there is often a limited scientific evidence base on whether and how to use it in many of these conditions. Conclusions: There is a need to maximise both clinical research and patient benefit, in a safe, cautious and ethical manner, so that those patients for whom cannabis is shown to be effective can access it. We hope our discussion and outlines for future progress offer a contribution to this process.

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Best practice for chronic oedema in community settings: what can we learn?

British Journal of Community Nursing ◽

10.12968/bjcn.2020.25.12.610 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (12) ◽

pp. 610-614

Author(s):

Garry Cooper-Stanton

Keyword(s):

Service Provision ◽

Best Practice ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Community Services ◽

Guidance Document ◽

Community Settings ◽

Tissue Viability ◽

Delivery Of Care ◽

Specialist Nurses ◽

The Uk

There are various opportunities and challenges in the delivery of care to those diagnosed with chronic oedema/lymphoedema. Service provision is not consistent within the UK, and non-specialist nurses and other health professionals may be called on to fill the gaps in this area. The latest best practice guidance on chronic oedema is directed at community services that care for people within their own homes in primary care. This guide was developed in order to increase awareness, knowledge and access to an evidence base. Those involved in its creation cross specialist fields (lymphoedema and tissue viability), resulting in the document covering a number of areas, including an explanation of chronic oedema, its assessment and management and the association between chronic oedema and wet legs. The document complements existing frameworks on the condition and its management and also increases the available tools within chronic oedema management in the community. The present article provides an overview of the guidance document and discusses its salient features.

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A Delphi Study Investigating Clinicians’ Views on Access to, Delivery of, and Adaptations of MBCT in the UK Clinical Settings

Mindfulness ◽

10.1007/s12671-021-01706-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kate Williams ◽

Samantha Hartley ◽

Peter Taylor

Keyword(s):

Delphi Study ◽

Good Practice ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Clinical Settings ◽

Training Support ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Complex Decision Making ◽

Complex Decision ◽

The Uk ◽

Clinical Populations

Abstract Objectives Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a well-evidenced relapse-prevention intervention for depression with a growing evidence-base for use in other clinical populations. The UK initiatives have outlined plans for increasing access to MBCT in clinical settings, although evidence suggests that access remains limited. Given the increased popularity and access to MBCT, there may be deviations from the evidence-base and potential risks of harm. We aimed to understand what clinicians believe should be best clinical practice regarding access to, delivery of, and adaptations to MBCT. Methods We employed a two-stage Delphi methodology. First, to develop statements around best practices, we consulted five mindfulness-based experts and reviewed the literature. Second, a total of 59 statements were taken forward into three survey rating rounds. Results Twenty-nine clinicians completed round one, with 25 subsequently completing both rounds two and three. Forty-four statements reached consensus; 15 statements did not. Clinicians agreed with statements regarding sufficient preparation for accessing MBCT, adherence to the evidence-base and good practice guidelines, consideration of risks, sufficient access to training, support, and resources within services, and carefully considered adaptations. The consensus was not reached on statements which reflected a lack of evidence-base for specific clinical populations or the complex decision-making processes involved in delivering and making adaptations to MBCT. Conclusions Our findings highlight the delicate balance of maintaining a client-centred and transparent approach whilst adhering to the evidence-base in clinical decisions around access to, delivery of, and adaptations in MBCT and have important wide-reaching implications.

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