Scoping review of indicators and methods of measurement used to evaluate the impact of dog population management interventions

Hiby, Elly; Atema, Kate Nattrass; Brimley, Rebecca; Hammond-Seaman, Alexandra; Jones, Mark; Rowan, Andrew; Fogelberg, Emelie; Kennedy, Mark; Balaram, Deepashree; Nel, Louis; Cleaveland, Sarah; Hampson, Katie; Townsend, Sunny; Lembo, Tiziana; Rooney, Nicola; Whay, Helen Rebecca; Pritchard, Joy; Murray, Jane; van Dijk, Lisa; Waran, Natalie; Bacon, Heather; Knobel, Darryn; Tasker, Lou; Baker, Chris; Hiby, Lex

doi:10.1186/s12917-017-1051-2

Table 1 Summary of the 26 items of literature reviewed that reported a change in one or more impacts following a dog population management intervention

From: Scoping review of indicators and methods of measurement used to evaluate the impact of dog population management interventions

Impact assessed	Indicator(s) used	Change in indicator following intervention?	Method of measurement	Study design type	Intervention type (limited to dog-related activities)	Country (city or region if applicable), Continent	Publication type	Reference
1. Improve dog welfare	Body condition score	No	Repeated clinical exam of cohort of dogs	Quasi-experimental; prospective cohort	Rabies vaccination	Tanzania, Africa	Peer-reviewed publication	[17]
1. Improve dog welfare	Body condition score	Yes	Clinical exam of dogs whilst in intervention clinic or during handling for vaccination (control group)	Observational; retrospective cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and return of roaming dogs	India (Rajasthan), Asia	Peer-reviewed publication	[15]
	Presence of ticks/fleas	Yes
	Open wounds	Yes
	Antibodies to canine infectious diseases (serology)	Yes
1. Improve dog welfare	Body condition score	Yes	Street surveys of roaming dogs	Quasi-experimental; Cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and return of roaming dogs	India (Jodhpur), Asia	Peer-reviewed publication	[16]
	Skin condition	Yes	Clinical exam of dogs whilst in intervention clinic
	Open wounds	No	Clinical exam of dogs whilst in intervention clinic
1. Improve dog welfare	Dog-dog aggression	No	Video surveillance of roaming dogs	Experimental; prospective cohort	Castration of male dogs	Chile (Puerto Natales), S America	Peer-reviewed publication	[22]
	Dog-human aggression	No
	Interspecies aggression	No
1. Improve dog welfare	Body condition score	Yes	Clinical exam of dogs whilst in intervention clinic	Observational, no control group; repeated cross-sectional	Neutering, rehoming, basic vet care, euthanasia	USA (Lakota Reservation), N America	Conference presentation	[14]
1. Improve dog welfare	Skin condition	Yes	Clinical exam of dogs whilst in intervention clinic
2. Improve care provide to dogs	Proportion of dogs brought to clinic, as opposed to needing to be caught	Yes	Interview of local grocery stores
2. Improve care provide to dogs	Dog food purchases	Yes	Interview of local grocery stores
1. Improve dog welfare	Body condition score	Yes	Street surveys of roaming dogs	Quasi-experimental; repeated cross-sectional	Neutering, rabies vaccination, basic vet care, bite prevention education	Sri Lanka (Colombo), Asia	Conference presentation	[13]
1. Improve dog welfare	Skin condition	Yes
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Number of dogs observed in sample of wards	Yes
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Percentage of lactating females	Yes
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Number of dogs observed in ‘zones’ demarked by intervention	Yes	Mark (ear notch applied during intervention)-resight survey of roaming dogs	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and return of roaming dogs	India (Jaipur), Asia	Conference presentation	[42]
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Number of dogs in sample areas	Yes	Mark (paint applied during survey)-resight survey of roaming dogs	Quasi-experimental; Cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and return of roaming dogs	India (Jodhpur), Asia	Peer-reviewed publication	[43]
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Number of dogs per square mile of sampled areas	No	Mark (individual dogs identified and recorded using photographs)-resight survey of roaming dogs, also known as photo capture-recapture	Observational, no control group; repeated cross-sectional	Roaming dogs removed by Animal Control and housed for returning, rehoming or euthanasia in a local government pound	USA (Baltimore), N America	Book	[48]
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Percentage of lactating females and puppies	Yes	Street surveys of roaming dogs	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and return of roaming dogs	Nepal, Asia	Conference presentation	[51]
	Percentage of lactating females and puppies	Yes			Rabies vaccination
	Male:female	No			Rabies vaccination
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Percentage of households experiencing dog mortality in past 12 months	Yes	Questionnaire of dog owners	Observational; cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and basic health care for owned and roaming dogs	Thailand (Kho Tao), Asia	Report	[27]
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Percentage of owned dogs adopted	Yes	Questionnaire of dog owners	Observational; cross-sectional		Thailand (Kho Tao), Asia	Report	[27]
3. Reduce dog density/stabilise turnover	Number of dogs observed on 6 standard routes	Yes	Street surveys of roaming dogs	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and return of roaming dogs	India (Jaipur), Asia	Peer-reviewed publication	[41]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Human rabies cases	Yes	Data collected from local hospital	Quasi-experimental; cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and return of roaming dogs	India (Jaipur), Asia	Peer-reviewed publication	[41]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Reported dog bites from local hospital	Yes	Accessed publically available hospital reports	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Neutering, vaccination and return of roaming dogs	India (Jaipur), Asia	Peer-reviewed publication	[57]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Human bite injuries from suspect rabid dogs	Yes	Animal-bite injury data collected from Government District Hospitals	Experimental; repeated cross-sectional	Rabies vaccination	Tanzania, Africa	Peer-reviewed publication	[58]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Dog rabies cases	Yes	Data collected from district Veterinary and Health authorities	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Rabies vaccination	Indonesia (Bali), Asia	Peer-reviewed publication	[60]
	Dog bite injuries treated with PEP	Yes
	Human rabies cases	Yes
4. Reduce risks to public health	Human rabies cases	Yes	Data collected from Peruvian Ministry of Health	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Rabies vaccination	Peru (Lima), S America	Peer-reviewed publication	[65]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Dog rabies cases	Yes	Data collected from Peruvian Ministry of Health	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Rabies vaccination	Peru (Lima), S America	Peer-reviewed publication	[65]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Incidence of livestock with hydatid cysts	Yes	Surveillance of offal at slaughter houses	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Dog deworming	New Zealand, Australasia	Report	[68]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Surgical incidence of cysts in humans	Yes	Quarterly reports from all hospitals	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Dog deworming	Australia (Tasmania), Australasia	Peer-reviewed publication	[69]
	Incidence of hydatid cysts in sheep	Yes	Surveillance of offal at slaughter houses
	Incidence of infected dogs	Yes	Presence of worms following purging of dogs
4. Reduce risks to public health	Incidence of hydatid cysts in sheep	Yes	Surveillance of offal at slaughter houses	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Dog deworming	Falkland Islands, S America	Peer-reviewed publication	[70]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Incidence of infected dogs	Yes	ELISA test for serum antibodies and ELISA test for copro-antigens	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Dog deworming	Falkland Islands, S America	Peer-reviewed publication	[70]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Incidence of human cases of leishmaniasis	Yes	Data collected from State Epidemiological Surveillance Centre	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Dog culling	Brazil (Aracatuba), S America	Peer-reviewed publication	[71]
4. Reduce risksto public health	Incidence of human cases of leishmaniasis	Yes	Data collected from Zoonoses Control Centers (dog seropositive status tested by ELISA and confirmed by Indirect Immunofluorescency test)	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Dog vaccination and culling	Brazil (Aracatuba and Belo Horizonte), S America	Peer-reviewed publication	[73]
4. Reduce risksto public health	Incidence of leishmaniasis infection in dogs	Yes		Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Dog vaccination and culling	Brazil (Aracatuba and Belo Horizonte), S America	Peer-reviewed publication	[73]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Incidence of human infection with leishmaniasis	Yes	LST conversion and DAT of finger-prick blood samples from children	Experimental, cluster randomized control trial; prospective cohort	Deltamethrin-impregnated dog collars	Iran (Kalaybar and Meshkin-Shahr), Middle East	Peer-reviewed publication	[74]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Incidence of leishmaniasis infection in dogs	Yes	DAT of dog serological samples		Deltamethrin-impregnated dog collars	Iran (Kalaybar and Meshkin-Shahr), Middle East	Peer-reviewed publication	[74]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Incidence of leishmaniasis infection in dogs	Yes	Antibody test - rK39 dipstick of serological samples Parasitology tests - Examination of lymph-node smears and PCR of dermal tissue	Experimental parallel-group randomized control trial; prospective cohort	Repellent and insecticidal (imidacloprid 10%/permethrin 50%) spot-on for dogs	Italy, Europe	Peer-reviewed publication	[75]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Dog rabies cases	Yes	Data collected from municipal vet authority	Observational; repeated cross-sectional	Neutering, rabies vaccination, basic vet care, bite prevention education	Sri Lanka (Colombo), Asia	Peer-reviewed publication	[59]
4. Reduce risks to public health	Dog bite injuries treated with PEP	Yes	Data collected from municipal vet authority
5. Improve public perception	Summative acceptance score	Yes	Data collected from bite centre in General Hospital
5. Improve public perception	Number of dog-related problems	Yes	Attitude statements in questionnaire
	Number of dog-related problems	Yes	Participatory research with focus groups
6. Improve rehoming/adoption centre performance	Intake rates	Yes	Monthly reporting of data from each of six rehoming/adoption centres	Observational; prospective cohort study	Mixed – each of 6 communities selected the most locally relevant intervention. Examples included high-volume spay/neuter services, adoption promotions, new fund-raising strategies and community engagement	USA, N America	Peer-reviewed publication	[78]
6. Improve rehoming/adoption centre performance	Live release rates	Yes		Observational; prospective cohort study		USA, N America	Peer-reviewed publication	[78]
6. Improve rehoming/adoption centre performance	Intake rates	No	Reporting of intake data from all rehoming/adoption centres involved in five Maddie’s Fund (donor) community programs	Observational; retrospective cohort study	Low cost neutering for owned dogs	USA, N America	Peer-reviewed publication	[79]

Definitions of terms used in ‘Study design’ column:
Observational studies are usually those where no intervention was used. The studies included in this table are all related to assessing the impact of an intervention. However in some studies, measurements were taken from dogs prior to them being intervened upon, e.g. taking body condition scores as they arrive at the intervention clinic, to assess retrospectively if they have benefited from living in a location where an intervention has been used with other dogs; these studies are defined as observational because none of the dogs have directly undergone treatment at the time of observation
Experimental studies are those where dogs that had experienced intervention were compared to those that had not (a control group) and where allocation to intervention or control was done randomly (includes randomised control trials). Randomisation can be done where each dog is randomly assigned to be part of the intervention or control; this is called parallel-group. Or where groups of dogs, such as those living in particular villages, are randomly assigned to the intervention or control; called cluster randomisation
Quasi-experimental studies are those where dogs that had experienced intervention were compared to those that had not (a control group) but allocation to intervention or control was not done randomly, e.g. owners brought their dogs or catchers caught whichever dogs were accessible
Repeated cross-sectional studies have observed a sample of dogs from the same population on two or more occasions, but it is not known if the same dogs appear in each sample, e.g. observing all the dogs visible along a survey route before the intervention started and again observing all dogs visible along the same route after the intervention has been running for a period of time, some of those dogs will be in both surveys, others will only be seen in one. This may also be termed a between-subject design
Longitudinal studies observe the same individual dogs at two or more points over time, also termed within-subject design. When these include both dogs that have been part of an intervention, and those in a control group, it is termed a cohort study
Retrospective studies (Latin derived prefix, “retro” meaning “back, behind”) look back at the history of a sample of dogs to see if differences between these dogs can be explained by what has happened to them in the past, usually comparing whether they have been part of an intervention or not
Prospective studies (Greek derived prefix, “pro” meaning “before, in front of”) start with a sample of dogs and measures what happens to them over time to examine causal associations, when part of a cohort study this will involve some of the dogs being subject to the intervention and others being part of a control group

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