We recently had the opportunity to interview Ms. Sonya McDowall about her paper “The Impact of the Social Determinants of Human Health on Companion Animal Welfare”, which was published in Animals (ISSN: 2076-2615) in 2023 and has received a significant amount of positive feedback from readers.

The following is an interview with Ms. Sonya McDowall:

I worked in the human health sector for 10 years in London, United Kingdom, before returning to Australia to pursue a career change into the veterinary field. I gained experience in veterinary clinical practice and completed my honors degree at the University of Adelaide. During this time, I discovered my passion for research and its potential to create meaningful change, which inspired me to apply for a Ph.D. scholarship at La Trobe University, in partnership with the University of Adelaide, Australia. After receiving the scholarship, I began my Ph.D. journey, focusing on my chosen research area—understanding human–animal bonds. I teach at the University of Adelaide in the Veterinary School and have recently started working in the School of Public Health.
The main goal of my Ph.D. is to help people maintain their relationships with their pets, which is incredibly important. We all go through challenging periods in our lives, and as we face these challenges, our pets are a key relationship and a key source of support to our health and well-being during these hard times. It is important to me to be able to help people look after their pets and maintain their relationships with them in both the good and challenging periods of their lives. I really discovered my veterinary journey and with my human healthcare background, I’ve come to appreciate the connection between human and animal health and understand how deeply humans influence their pets' lives and how similar challenges exist in both the human and veterinary healthcare space.
At present, human health and animal health exist in silos to each other, which creates a gap and limits the support to maintain the human–animal bond. However, if we were able to integrate these two areas to work together in a multidisciplinary way, we would be able to contribute to a healthier society. I am passionate about addressing these challenges because when pets are neglected or poorly cared for and their guardians are not present, it impacts both their happiness and overall well-being. It’s about building a more sustainable community, sustainable wellness, and health for humans and animals. By including pets, we can create a more inclusive approach to the healthcare system as a whole. We need to find a way that we can talk the same language across both human healthcare and animal care, and bring them both together. I wanted my Ph.D. to fit in that space and I am privileged to have amazing supervisors who support me in this journey. In this journey, I can take part in promoting a healthier society for both humans and animals alike.

Personally, the real driver is the need for change and the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. That’s my personal motivation. I have two dogs and two cats, and I’m passionate about all species.
Animals do amazing things for us—they reduce anxiety and depression, and improve people’s mental and physical health. They do all these amazing things for us. They provide amazing connection and emotional support, which we, as humans, deeply need. The research was inspired by the increasing recognition of the interconnectedness between human health and animal welfare. Despite significant studies in these individual fields, there was a notable gap in understanding how the social determinants of health (SDHs)—key factors influencing human health—also impact companion animal welfare. I aimed to bridge this gap by exploring how human socioeconomic, physical, and social challenges influence the ability of guardians to provide for their animals, ultimately affecting welfare outcomes. Additionally, the study was motivated by the need for a multidisciplinary approach, integrating frameworks like One Health, One Welfare, and the five domains of animal welfare to holistically improve outcomes for both humans and animals​.

The article highlights the importance of understanding the interplay between human social determinants and companion animal welfare. By adopting an SDH framework tailored to companion animals, the study demonstrates how factors like income, education, access to healthcare, and community environment can directly and indirectly affect animal welfare outcomes. The research suggests the need for integrated, preventative policies that address both human and animal welfare challenges holistically. It emphasizes the value of multidisciplinary collaboration to enhance the human–animal bond and proposes actionable insights for improving service provision and public policy to protect and strengthen this relationship​. There may be a different bias across different professions, which is also really interesting. These biases and challenges play out in various ways in human–animal relationships.

Historically, in research, we assumed that the reasons animals were relinquished to shelters by their guardians was solely based on animal behavior, without considering the human side. At the same time, I started seeing lots of different studies that were happening, and one would touch on the person’s education, another on income or on healthcare. They are all things that happen in our lives—all five social determinants. I think what made this work so well received was that it finally brought all these elements together in one place, creating a comprehensive framework where everything could be identified.
This framework brought together two sectors: the human framework—the Social Determinants of Health—and the animal framework—the Five Domains of Animal Welfare. When you put them together, you can show their relationship—the two shallows of key frameworks, which work together. Veterinary professionals can better understand the human factors behind animal care, while human healthcare professionals can understand the impact of animals. Pets play a crucial role in human treatment and health, and this framework helps bridge two significant areas by allowing both sides to speak the same language.

I am hoping for work in academia, in research. I definitely would do more research on how we can improve the integration between human and veterinary health and how we can achieve positive health outcomes for both humans and animals. These would be my primary drivers for the future. I hope this work will encourage funding organizations to recognize the importance and significant role animals play in people’s lives and, in turn, contribute to improving overall population health and wellness. I would like to continue the research in this area. I would also like to see people being able to have better access to support in keeping their pets when needed.

The majority of publishing channels are focused mainly either on human health or on veterinary science and Animals has this space with publications on human–animal bonds. There are a lot of publications in this space, and this fits my research, so that was my main driver. I contacted you with my manuscript proposal for consideration, as it was unique and different, and it was well received and I was encouraged for submission.
It was my first publication; the peer-review process was very smooth and even my supervisor told me that it was not normal to have this smooth and fast of a process. I received such positive reports, so I felt my manuscript was well received and supported.

My advice would be this: don’t be scared of it as it can be an enjoyable process. Research is a very unique area; having amazing supervisors definitely helps as far as making the journey simpler. Your research can make a change if you are passionate about change and you are constantly getting better and wanting to improve things—research is where you probably need to go if you want opportunities to make a difference. I think it’s beneficial for making young scholars realize this is their opportunity to make a difference, to the community. That is really important.