The human-dog relationship in the context of human health: considerations about content posted on Instagram

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

PALLOTTA, Mara Lucia ^[1], CUNHA, Maria Claudia ^[2]

PALLOTTA, Mara Lucia. CUNHA, Maria Claudia. The human-dog relationship in the context of human health: considerations about content posted on Instagram. Revista Científica Multidisciplinar Núcleo do Conhecimento. Year 05, Ed. 08, Vol. 04, pp. 151-172. August 2020. ISSN: 2448-0959, Access link: https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/health/human-dog-relationship

SUMMARY

Introduction: The dog has been present in human life since the dawn of civilization and has been gradually occupying new roles in society. Due to the mutual help that characterizes the bond between these two species, currently the dog, proven to be sentient, establishes itself as a member of the so-called multi-species families and, more than that, the effectiveness of its presence in supporting people with physical, psychic and/or social vulnerability — the so-called Animal Assisted Intervention (AAI), has been approached scientifically as well as, broadly, disseminated on digital social networks. Objective: To research the human-dog relationship in the context of human health in posts made on the social network Instagram. Method: Exploratory-descriptive cross-section research in which posts were collected on Instagram, searched through previously selected hashtags — #terapiaassistidaporanimais and #animalassistedtherapy — terms chosen because they were indexed as Health Sciences Descriptors – DeCS. Posts were collected during 10 minutes daily for each of these hashtags from Monday to Sunday, at times defined by lot, in a period of three months of the year 2019 (July, August and September). Results: The results were described from the following categories of posts: according to the geographic location of origin; regarding the characteristics of the assisted (type of frailty, gender and age group), regarding the place of care; the type of activity performed; areas of knowledge involved. Thus, it was possible to understand the phenomenon studied from quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results. Conclusion: This research offered significant data on this interspecies relationship in the context of human health, since the social network allowed access to the contemporary world scenario in the approach to the theme.

Keywords: Animal Assisted Therapy, dogs, social network.

1. INTRODUCTION

The digital environment is a virtual ecosystem that concentrates more than half of the world’s population with about 4 billion connected people (ITU – International Telecommunication – UN, 2018).

Since the daily life of society is directly shaped by the media and it actively participates in the construction of the social world (THOMPSON, 2011), there is now a medium with even greater reach than traditional media because of the Internet, whose consequence is a society highly impacted by content that generates new trends day after day. Mobile telephony has made the internet even more accessible where we have that seven out of ten Brazilians are connected to the network (CGI.BR, 2018).

Research by hootsuite¹ and We Are Social² (2019) shows that each Brazilian uses 3 hours and 34 minutes of his day in activities in digital media, specifically on social networks.

According to Marteleto (2001), social networks house a set of autonomous participants, uniting ideas and resources around shared values and interests. It is through this universe of digital media in general that we are hit daily by information (only on Instagram are published an average of 100 million posts daily, worldwide, according to Statista — The Statics Portal, a leading portal provider of market and consumer data).

In this context, the present study starts from the observation that a significant portion of the contents published on social networks witness the interaction of humans with pets, since the inter-species relationship has been improving, where the dog now occupies more space and functions with the new family social configuration called multispecies — the family that recognizes pets as members (FARACO , 2008). It draws attention to the significant number of hashtags that comprise content with images of dogs providing assistance to hospitalized patients or supporting people with indicators of frailty in home environments or institutions. And, considering that social networks exert a strong influence, both in the dissemination of innovations and in the dissemination of information and knowledge (TOMAÉL; ALCARARÁ; DI CHIARA, 2005), this study seems appropriate.

2. GOAL

Search the human-dog relationship in the context of human health in posts on the social network Instagram.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REVIEW

3.1 The DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

Since the research field is an essentially digital environment, the understanding of this medium aims to contribute to this study. It is a fact that society has been transformed since the creation of the Internet and, even more, under the impact of Web 2.0 innovations. According to Ferreira (2007, p. 245) “Web 2.0 is made for and by users. These left the level of observation and started to give their contribution and personal mark in a space that is increasingly of everyone ”.

Web 2.0 is an environment where personas — a term created by Tavares (2010, p. 2) — could both generate and consume information in addition to debating their ideas democratically. It is worth pointing out that social bonds were created through networks, whose environment is the setting of this study.

3.2 INSTAGRAM AND ITS CHARACTERIZATION

Instagram is a free mobile app with the social network profile whose function is the sharing of photos and videos among users, who can comment and like the posts (among other functions in the application that has been implemented).

Basically this app allows the user who owns an account to capture images in photography or video, apply filters on those images, and post them to their profile, and this content can be viewed by other users of the app. About finding content that is the focus of interest to users, the resource used are hashtags (represented by the character #cerquilha), which aim to group content to make it easier for users of social networks to find them. According to Pinto, Theodoro and Oliveira (2016, pg. 35), “hashtags are words or expressions with the function of categorizing social media posts, which make content search able. They are free to create, so there are no rules or restrictions to create them.”

According to a research elaborated on the interests of the regulars of this network, 49% of the users follow profiles that deal with health, including profiles of topics related to Human Health (D’ANGELO, 2019). It is in this niche that is the universe of this research.

3.3 INTERACTION BETWEEN HUMANS AND DOGS: THE HISTORICAL PROCESS OF CANINE DOMESTICATION

There are no precise data on the approximation between the human being and the dog. According to Fogle (2006), the dog’s ancestor lived 7 million years ago. Other studies claim that the domestication of the dog began in the Neolithic period, with the sedentary lifestyle of societies, which ceased to be nomads fixating in regions, going on to devote themselves to cultivation (GALIBERT et al., 2011).

Wolves approached the tribes in search of leftover food, offering protection to the territory and help in hunting, and with this interaction, this interaction happened through a mutual benefit (LANTZMAN, 2013).

From the moment the dog was allowed to enter the family home, ceased to be food and gained a name, it becomes a pet and this distinguishes it from the other and, whatever its attribute, the main one is an affectionate loyalty to the human species (THOMAS, 2001).

In this context, it is understood that the dog has developed skills to relate to the human being (LIMA; SOUZA, 2004; DOMINGUES, 2007; ALBUQUERQUE; CIARI, 2016), creating social bonds, an innate characteristic of both species as a strategy for adaptation and survival (BOWLBY, 1990), and the bond is as primary a necessity as satisfying hunger or home (GOMES; MELCHIORI, 2011). According to Attachment Behavior³ (BOWLBY, 1990), it is opportune to look at this relationship in a similar way to what occurs between children and their caregivers (FARACO, 2008).

Based on scientific evidence, the dog’s abilities have been appropriate as adjuvants in therapeutic processes and gain the power to influence society, since they are now disseminated on digital social networks.

3.4 DOGS IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN HEALTH

Porto and Cassol (2007) maintain that the union between humans and dogs has always had as its main vehicle the mutual affection, which causes a state of relaxation and spontaneity.

Revisiting the history of the presence of the dog in this context, it is compared with the first records, made in 1792, which show animals in the interaction with humans in patients with compromised mental health, at Retiro York, England (SERPELL, 1996; FINE, 2000).

Florence Nightingale (1860, p. 103) postulates that a pet could be an excellent companion for people with chronic disease cases. At the same time (1867), in Germany, Bethel Institute develops activities with the inclusion of animals in epileptic patients (GRANDGEORGE; HAUSBERGER, 2011).

Meanwhile Freud, who also had a close relationship with his dogs, already adopted the presence of his dog chow chow – Jofi – in the setting of psychoanalysis sessions (RUITENBEEK, 1973).

World War veterans who had their mental health compromised were able to rely on the company of animals when the monotony of hospital environments was broken by this interaction (CHANDLER, 2005).

In the 1960s, through the American child psychiatrist Boris Levinson, the first scientific reports on the patient-animal relationship in the setting were the first, with the beginning of the recognition of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) as a therapeutic means in the health area (HOOKER; FREEMAN; STEWART, 2002).

Nise da Silveira was a pioneer in the use of Animal Assisted Therapy – AAT in Brazil in hospitalized psychotic patients (DOMINGUES, 2007). Hannelore Fucks, veterinary physician and psychologist (MACHADO; ROCK; SANTOS, 2008), corroborated the presence of animals in visits to internees in institutions in the 1980s.

In 1996, the American organization Delta Society – The Human-Animal Health Connection defined nomenclatures for activities involving animals and contextualizes them, which is complemented in 2014 by the International Association of Human-Animal Interactions Organizations (IAHAIO)⁴, which created definitions and guidelines for all work of interventions that would involve dogs in service with humans.

In this direction, scientific production has confirmed that the presence of animals in general, specifically dogs, plays an adjunct role in therapies in the most diverse needs of the human being.

Domingues (2007) reported the case of the patient Pedro and the small dog, when the AAT allowed a decrease in the retracted and aggressive behavior of the patient, obtaining a significant gain in the speech therapy of the subject.

According to Ichitani (2015), in a study conducted to analyze the sensation of pain in hospitalized children, it was evident that AAA was efficient regarding the sensation of reduced pain reported by the subjects studied.

With regard to Animal Assisted Education (EAA), there is Petenucci (2018) reporting in his research that reading becomes a positive and pleasant experience when in the presence of a dog.

3.5 DOGS IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social networks are environments in which people come together by similar tastes, values and needs. Instagram, as a social network created exclusively for sharing images plus a synthetic caption, has become a vast catalog of people, businesses, ideologies — each user creates a persona that is the costume they wear and through which they want to be recognized by the contacts with which they want to interact (COELHO, 2016):

The way to use Instagram, therefore, in the same way as other social networks, is at the discretion of users, who choose the photos they will post, the way they will communicate with other users through comments, and the posture they will adopt in their profile and in the narratives built on it (COELHO, 2016, p. 54).

On the social network Instagram are instagramers — owners of profiles that also influence their communities of followers through their content and who can currently be even represented by dogs — a phenomenon that occurs because of a new contour in family society that, according to Seguin, Araújo and Cordeiro (2016), has narrowed the relationship between humans and dogs, and they are considered as an integral part of the family , going from being a pet object to being a subject of rights and even gaining recognition on social media platforms (KÉRTÉSZ; BERZLEJA, 2019).

According to Salles, the number of posts tagged by the hashtag #dogsofinstagram in early 2020 reached a total of 131 million. Second (CRAMER, 2018, p. 9), the use of animals — specifically dogs — on social media boils down to a very practical factor: “they don’t share political opinions or any controversial issue.” And they also offer a quiet and mild feel to the content of a feed⁵; the same feeling that the physical presence of a dog offers us (KÉRTÉSZ; BERZLEJA, 2019).

From this perspective, it is suggested that the presence of dogs positively affects us and remains contiguous to us since the beginning of their domestication, playing roles proposed by contemporary social designs.

4. METHODE

The present study is based on exploratory-descriptive research. The variables were not established a priori and, after observation of the collected material, the data were described, recognized and analyzed quantitatively as well as qualitatively.

The participants whose images were analyzed were exempted from the Free and Informed Consent Form, since these images were published on a social network in digital media.

This project was approved by the Ethics Committee of PUC-SP under CAAE 23703119.0.0000.5482, on 11/27/2019.

4.1 CASUISTRY

Content published on the social network Instagram — n=155 — under two 02 Hashtags #terapiaassistidaporaniamais and #animalassistedtherapy, both terms chosen for being indexed in the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS), which was searched for a given period.

Inclusion criteria: photos and videos that demonstrate the interaction between humans and dogs in the context of human health, whether institutional or performed domesticly.

Exclusion criteria: content for advertising purposes; profile of posed images¹⁹ that do not demonstrate an activity between human and dog; profile of images containing only the human without the dog; images containing only the dog without the human; selfies⁶.

4.2 STUDY DESIGN

Flowchart 1 – Study Design

4.2.1 DEFINING SEARCH TERMS

In order to determine the hashtags that would be searched, the following criteria were assigned: relevance to the study; indexing in Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS); content groups related to each hashtag that contain from 1,000 posts to understand itself as relevant content. The following terms: Animal Assisted Therapy and its English and Spanish versions: Animal Assisted Therapy and Terapia Asistida por Animales were found in DeCS with related hashtags. The hashtag in the Spanish version – the #terapiaassistidaporanimales — was overthought because it contained less than 1,000 posts.

4.2.2 SETTING DATES FOR DATA COLLECTION

The collection of data related to the posts was made during 20 (twenty) minutes per day, 10 (ten) minutes for each hashtag, from Monday to Sunday, at times previously determined according to the draw that defined dates, days of the week and the respective times of collection for each day. The months were decided at random, taking into account the schedule for the completion of the project, i.e. June, August and September of the year 2019. Draws were made to define the dates of each month as well as the collection times per day.

Table 1 – Final Data Collection Schedule

Day of the Month	Day of the Week	Month	Collection Start Time
6	Thursday	June	11:00 p.m.
11	Tuesday	June	7:00 a.m.
14	Wednesday	August	2:00 p.m.
16	Friday	August	4:00 p.m.
22	Sunday	September	1:00 p.m.
23	Monday	September	5:00 a.m.
28	Saturday	September	2:00 p.m.

4.3 PROCEDURE

As an instrument for data collection, a mobile device with IOS Operating System was used — specifically Iphone 7. Each verified post had its URL (Uniform Resource Locator) saved, using the application’s own “Favorites” function and transferred to a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel software. The contents that were outside the established criteria were transferred to another spreadsheet. The data that represented the sample were opened in the browser for visualization, according to the following steps: 1. Profile owner’s note; 2. In the event that the owner of the profile is not an institution but an animal or a human being, the investigation shall take place in search of the name of the institution responsible for the publication and information on the type of work carried out; 3. Observation of features inherent to the application such as: markings of people in the image, location, reading of the bio in the profile, reading the subtitles and visiting the website clarifying too many demands for the study. Thus, the following database is concluded:

Table 2 – Final characterization of variables for data collection

ABOUT THE INSTITUTION
Url	Profile owner		Responsible institution	City		State	Country
ABOUT THE ASSISTED
Sex		Age Group			Fragility
ABOUT THE CALL
Place of Service		Professional Area			Activity Type

4.4 RESULTS ANALYSIS CRITERIA

Statistical analysis was performed using absolute (n) and relative (%) frequencies. Other research sources were verified, such as the institutional website and the social network Facebook of the Institution in order to qualitatively explore the service profile of each of the services found.

5. RESULTS

A total of 464 posts were collected, of which 349 were excluded because they were not part of the selection criteria. Thus, 115 images were evaluated between photos and videos: 54.8% published under the hashtag #terapiaassistidaporanimais (national posts) and 45.2% under the hashtag #animalassistedtherapy (international posts). The results were described from the following variables: posts according to the geographic location of origin; regarding the characteristics of the assisted: type of frailty, gender and age group; posts regarding the place of care; the type of activity performed and how much area of knowledge involved.

5.1 POSTS ACCORDING TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF ORIGIN

The largest number of posts was made by Brazil (57%). Other posts occurred within a standard in other locations, except USA (21%) which stood out from the countries of Europe and Oceania (12%) and America (6%). In national posts, the State of Paraíba appears with the highest number of posts (22%), followed by profiles of the Southeast States: Minas Gerais (19%); Rio de Janeiro (16%) and São Paulo (12%), respectively.

5.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ASSISTED: FRAILTY, SEX AND AGE GROUP

Work with hospitalized people is the most frequent in posts (47% in national and 29% international) posts, followed by posts from patients with special needs: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy, with virtually the same amount of posts regardless of place of origin (33% national and 29% international). Students were not observed in national postings. International posts show a significant number of this category (19.4%). The hospitalized category included elderly people living in reception institutions (12.5% national and 9.7% international.

Regarding age, children and the elderly are the ones who appear most in national posts (39.3% and 34.4% respectively). In international posts, assisted from 10 to 18 years are the most frequent (22%) and the elderly appear in few occurrences when compared to national posts (15.9%).

About the gender of the assisted, the male sex appears in most posts (38.1% in national posts and 64.3% in international posts). Images showing groups of patients of both sexes are equivalent to 22.2% in national posts and 14.3% in international posts. In 3.2% of the national images it was not possible to identify the sex.

It was also observed that, among the most evident types of frailties, male gender prevails in Patients with Special Needs practically equivalent in hospitalized patients, as can be seen in the graph below:

Graph 1 – Assisted Sex x Type of Frailty

5.3 PLACES OF SERVICE

Hospitals are the ones that contain the highest number of posts in animal-assisted intervention (AAI) services, both nationally and internationally, with 92.4% of the posts. Institutions to support people with special needs is the second occurrence in national posts (24.0%). In international posts, schools, parks and homes are places that appear with considerable frequency, (32.4%) which is no longer the case in national postings. (2,0%).

5.4 TYPE OF ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT

Contact⁷ between human and dog (74% both national and international) was the most evidenced activity. Activities such as playing (10%), reading with the dog (8%), brushing the dog (4%) occupied most of the international posts and were irrelevant in the national posts. Reading with the dog appears in 2% of national posts and 8% in international posts, all in the USA.

5.5 PROFESSIONAL AREA INVOLVED

The national posts showed mostly services involving the physiotherapy area (14%) and Psychology (13%). However, in many of them it was not possible to identify the area of knowledge of the professionals involved in the respective projects (67%) and interdisciplinarity in the services observed was non-existent. On the other hand, the international posts demonstrated projects appropriate to the Interdisciplinary profile (47%), mostly followed by psychology (12%), Social Work (4%), Occupational Therapy (2%) and Human Medicine (2%).

6. DISCUSSION

The exploration of this universe offered access to content on the social network Instagram that demonstrated a significant presence of dogs as influencers and owners of profiles (KÉRTÉSZ; BERZLEJA, 2019), confirming the animal as a member of the multispecies family (FARACO, 2008).

About the criterion of search terms, because hashtags are terms of free creation (PINTO; THEODORO; OLIVEIRA, 2016), a considerable set of hashtags could not be contemplated, since they did not meet the selection criteria proposed in the method.

The image captions were not verified the modalities of Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI), such as Animal Assisted Activities, Animal Assisted Therapy and Animal Assisted Education, AAA, TAA and EAA, respectively. The subjectivity of the images as well as often precarious textual information did not make these different approaches evident.

As for the geographical location of origin, it can be indoubted that the large number of posts on Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI) in the USA to the practice of this therapeutic model in the country with scientific investigations since the 1960s (LEVINSON, 1969).

The images of patients hospitalized in the practice of Animal Assisted Activities (AAA) in hospitals suggest that the assisted showed joy in the presence of the dog and, as if distracted by the interaction with the animal, were able to minimize discomfort (ICHITANI, 2015). The posts also convey spontaneity and relaxation of patients in contact with the dog (PORTO; CASSOL, 2007).

In this scenario, it is also worth emphasizing that the presence of the dog also positively impacts not only the assisted, but also on the behavior of the professionals involved (MARCUS et al., 2012), in the care of hospitalized patients.

Regarding the activities practiced by the patient with the dog, most of the scenes showed physical contact between them. In this direction, research confirms that this contact causes important hormonal effects as a stimulus of endorphin production (COLE; GAWLISKI, 2000), which may be associated with the feeling of well-being observed in the images. The dogs still lend the contents of the feed a quiet and mild feeling (KÉRTÉSZ; BERZLEJA, 2019), which I could see from my own perception during the collection and analysis of the material.

About activities developed by the human-dog pair, Reading had only one occurrence in national posts and students did not appear; which draws attention to the reference Petenucci (2018) who states that reading becomes a more pleasurable activity when done in the company of the dog. In international posts the reading activity has 4 occurrences, all in the USA. Thus, further studies on the subject are suggested.

From these considerations, we revisit Bowlby (1990) through attachment behavior, in which the approximation between individuals occurs, where one seeks the protection in the other by interpreting it as more skilled to face and face situations.

It is also worth mentioning a repertoire of basic attitudes of attachment (BOWLBY; AINSWORTH, 1969; 1985 APUD PIRES, 2017, p. 45) as “follow, stay close, touch, smile, have eye contact, snug and cling to each other” —evident in the sample images. Based on the theoretical framework, the scenes captured and published on the social network clearly demonstrated the role of the dog in the specific context that this research was proposed to observe.

7. CONCLUSION

This research offered significant data on the human-dog relationship in the context of human health obtained through posts on the social network Instagram, in relation to the geographical location of origin; characteristics of the assisted (type of frailty, gender and age group), place of care; type of activity performed and areas of knowledge involved.

However, it is observed that it is tenuous the desirable articulation between scientific production on the subject and the contents published in the social network studied. This finding justifies the continuity of this study through the creation of a digital platform that promotes such articulation, with the purpose of gathering information that enables dialogue with the scientific community, contributes to the development of health policies and stimulates the access of internet users to Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI).

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APPENDIX – FOOTNOTE REFERENCES

1. HootSuite is an American system specializing in brand management in social media, founded on November 28, 2008 by Ryan Holmes in Vancouver, Canada

2. We Are Social is a global agency that focuses on solving brand and business problems from the study of social behavior in networks.

3. Behavior based on the Theory of Attachment, which was elaborated in the second half of the twentieth century and focuses on understanding the affective bond between a child and the one who occupies the role of caregiver, usually the mother (BOWLBY, 1990).

4. Global Association of Organizations, based in Seattle – USA, dedicated to the practice, research and/or education in animal-assisted activity, animal-assisted therapy and training in service animals. These activities serve to promote the possession of pets, human-animal bonding and respectful approaches to animal involvement.

5. The Instagram feed is the page where users have access to updates and posts. Everything you post can be seen by your followers in their Insta feed and everything they post, you can also check in your feed.

6. Neologism originated in the term self-portrait, which means self-portraiture, and is a photo taken and shared on the internet. Usually a selfie is made by the person himself who appears in the photo, an effect that is only possible by mobile technology that has a built-in camera and that allows this possibility.

7. Contact is understood: dog on lap, affection in the dog, dog in bed along with the bedridden, that is, the human in contact with the animal with some part of the body.

^[1] Master in Speech Therapy. Postgraduate in Animal Behavior. Bachelor of Social Communication.

^[2] Full Professor, Department of Speech Therapy Clinic, Faculty of Humanities and Health, PUC – SP.

Sent: July, 2020.

Approved: August, 2020.