title: Risk factors for canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome in Slovakia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Increasing prevalence of cognitive impairment in an aging canine population poses a serious health problem. Identifying risk factors, which may influence the onset of cognitive decline, is becoming increasingly important. Here we investigated whether age, sex, weight, nutrition, dogs' housing and reproductive state were associated with increased risk of canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CCDS) in Slovakia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Age was associated with cognitive decline and nutrition emerged as a significant predictor variable. Dogs fed controlled diets had 2.8 times lower odds of developing CCDS when compared with dogs fed uncontrolled diets. Sex, weight, reproductive state and dogs' housing were not significantly associated with cognitive decline. Further, the prevalence of CCDS was similar in both small and medium/large sized dogs aged 8-11 years, but differed in dogs at an age of 11-13 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age was found to be the most prominent risk factors of CCDS. Nutrition may influence the cognitive state of dogs. This finding suggests that nutritional interventions may modify canine cognitive functions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, Brno, Czech Republic. katina@math.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Stanislav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Katina
authors.affiliation: University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Komenskeho 73, Kosice, Slovak Republic. jana.farbakova@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Farbakova
authors.affiliation: University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Komenskeho 73, Kosice, Slovak Republic. aladar_madari@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Aladar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Madari
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroimmunology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. michal.novak@savba.sk.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Novak
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroimmunology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. norbert.zilka@savba.sk.|Institute of Neuroimmunology, No., Dvorakovo Nabrezie 45, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. norbert.zilka@savba.sk.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zilka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D018154:Slovakia / Q000453:epidemiology