Table 1.
Objectively measured family dog walking behaviour for intervention and control groups
| |
Baseline |
Follow-up |
|
|
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |
Intervention mean (SD) |
Control mean (SD) |
Intervention mean (SD) |
Control mean (SD) |
Intervention –control difference (95% CI) |
p value‡ |
Effect size (Cohen’s d) |
| N = 15 | N = 12 | N = 15 | N = 12 | ||||
| Number of walks per week |
2.7 (2.1) |
2.6 (2.6) |
2.6 (1.2) |
2 (1.7) |
0.5 (-0.4, 1.4) |
0.19 |
0.23 |
| Total duration of dog walking (mins/week) |
53 (58) |
25 (29) |
47 (37) |
23 (23) |
-4 (-25, 17) |
0.12 |
0.10 |
| Child mean accelerometer cpm* during dog walking |
2117 (1289) |
1953 (1136) |
2784 (1279) |
2490 (1724) |
130 (-539, 799) |
0.41 |
0.10 |
| % time child spent walk in MVPA† |
22.1 (21.4) |
18.9 (18.6) |
26.1 (21.7) |
15.2 (21.7) |
7.7 (-1.7, 17.1) |
0.12 |
0.32 |
| Parent mean accelerometer cpm* during dog walking |
1996 (1673) |
1518 (1205) |
2216 (1237) |
1601 (976) |
137 (-486, 760) |
0.39 |
0.10 |
| % time parent spent walk in MVPA§ |
45.3 (41.2) |
31.7 (34.5) |
42.0 (30.8) |
20.3 (23.8) |
8.1 (-6.4, 22.6) |
0.11 |
0.22 |
| Dog mean accelerometer cpm* during dog walking |
3595 (2031) |
3549 (2572) |
4558 (1746) |
3766 (2155) |
746 (-345, 1837) |
0.39 |
0.27 |
| % time dog spent in light-mod PA¶ |
60.4 (34.5) |
69.4 (39.3) |
55.2 (32.4) |
37.6 (40.1) |
26.6 (6.8, 46.4) |
0.06 |
0.53 |
| % time dog spent in vigorous PA** | 19.6 (17.7) | 13.9 (23.2) | 24.7 (17.3) | 12.7 (19.6) | 6.3 (-4.2, 16.8) | 0.03 | 0.24 |
*cpm = counts per minute.
†≥3200 accelerometer cpm.
§≥1952 accelerometer cpm.
¶1352–5965 accelerometer cpm.
**≥5696 accelerometer cpm.
‡Intervention and control groups were compared using analysis of covariance.
Of the 28 families recruited, 1 parent and 1 dog (from the same family) returned invalid accelerometry data at baseline and were excluded from analysis.