IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i9p5655-d809702.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pet Ownership and Mental and Physical Health in Older White and Black Males and Females

Author

Listed:
  • Amy E. Albright

    (Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Maine Health Care System, Augusta, ME 04240, USA
    Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401, USA
    Alabama Research Institute on Aging, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA)

  • Ruifeng Cui

    (Department of Veterans Affairs, VISN 4 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, VA Pittsburgh Health Care System, Pittsburgh, PA 15240, USA
    Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA)

  • Rebecca S. Allen

    (Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401, USA
    Alabama Research Institute on Aging, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA)

Abstract

Pet ownership literature remains mixed regarding associations with mental and physical health outcomes among older adults. The present study investigates the relationship between pet ownership and depression, health, and physical activity in an older adult sample balanced by sex (male/female), race (White/Black), and urban/rural status. Participants were adults aged 65+ recruited between 1999 and 2001 in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Study of Aging. Participants completed the Geriatric Depression Scale, a single-item self-reported health measure, and a physical activity questionnaire. Dog owners reported better subjective health and were more likely to walk for exercise as compared to non-pet owners. Cat owners did not differ from non-pet owners in terms of self-reported health or walking. White participants were more likely than Black participants to report ownership of a pet. No relationships were found between pet ownership and symptoms of depression. Findings were not influenced by sex, race, or geographical location. Dog ownership may be associated with positive physical health behaviors and subjective health perceptions. Additional research focused on mechanisms and cognitive impact is needed. Although there may be physical health benefits of dog ownership, adopting a pet should not be viewed as a simplistic solution to alleviating depression in older adults.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy E. Albright & Ruifeng Cui & Rebecca S. Allen, 2022. "Pet Ownership and Mental and Physical Health in Older White and Black Males and Females," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-8, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5655-:d:809702
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5655/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5655/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mieke Rijken & Sandra Beek, 2011. "About Cats and Dogs … Reconsidering the Relationship Between Pet Ownership and Health Related Outcomes in Community-Dwelling Elderly," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(3), pages 373-388, July.
    2. Rebecca Utz, 2014. "Walking the Dog: The Effect of Pet Ownership on Human Health and Health Behaviors," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 327-339, April.
    3. Anne C Krendl & Brea L Perry & Derek M Isaacowitz, 2021. "The Impact of Sheltering in Place During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Older Adults’ Social and Mental Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(2), pages 53-58.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pauline Rebecca Hansen & Hans-Helmut König & André Hajek, 2024. "Pet Ownership and Psychosocial Factors in Adults Aged 40 Years and Over: Results of a Large Nationally Representative Longitudinal Survey," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-20, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John P. Robinson & Elena Tracy & Yoonjoo Lee, 2015. "Cruising through the millennium - 2003-13 changes in American Daily life," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 12(1), pages 133-152, December.
    2. Timo Toivonen, 2015. "Spousal influence in time use - On book reading, highbrow culture attendance and computer use," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Deborah J. Bowen & Kelly E. Rentscher & Amy Wu & Gwen Darien & Helen Ghirmai Haile & Jeanne Mandelblatt & Marion Kavanaugh-Lynch, 2021. "Learning from and Leveraging Multi-Level Changes in Responses to the COVID 19 Pandemic to Facilitate Breast Cancer Prevention Efforts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-12, June.
    4. Morgan M. Wright & Pamela Schreiner & B. R. Simon Rosser & Elizabeth J. Polter & Darryl Mitteldorf & William West & Michael W. Ross, 2019. "The Influence of Companion Animals on Quality of Life of Gay and Bisexual Men Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-8, November.
    5. Jong Hyun Jung & Kyung Won Choi & Harris Hyun-soo Kim, 2022. "Examining the Complex (Curvilinear and Contingent) Associations between Social Distancing Compliance and Subjective Health during a Global Health Crisis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-15, November.
    6. Carmen M. Tyler & Grace B. McKee & Elisabet Alzueta & Paul B. Perrin & Kristine Kingsley & Fiona C. Baker & Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla, 2021. "A Study of Older Adults’ Mental Health across 33 Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-15, May.
    7. Emily Shoesmith & Panagiotis Spanakis & Emily Peckham & Paul Heron & Gordon Johnston & Lauren Walker & Suzanne Crosland & Elena Ratschen, 2021. "The Role of Animal Ownership for People with Severe Mental Illness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Method Study Investigating Links with Health and Loneliness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-17, November.
    8. Marit Rebane, 2015. "Double advantage or disadvantage? - Parental education and children's developmental stages in Italy," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 12(1), pages 49-72, December.
    9. Jaroslav Flegr & Marek Preiss, 2019. "Friends with malefit. The effects of keeping dogs and cats, sustaining animal-related injuries and Toxoplasma infection on health and quality of life," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-30, November.
    10. Pegah Derakhshan & William C. Miller & Jaimie Borisoff & Elham Esfandiari & Sue Forwell & Tal Jarus & Somayyeh Mohammadi & Isabelle Rash & Brodie Sakakibara & Julia Schmidt & Gordon Tao & Noah Tregobo, 2022. "Describing the Function, Disability, and Health of Adults and Older Adults during the Early Coronavirus Restrictions in 2019: An Online Survey," Disabilities, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-13, September.
    11. Jens Bonke, 2015. "Love and retirement - Older couples' leisure time before and after retirement," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 12(1), pages 97-114, December.
    12. Hui Liu & Molly Copeland & Gerald Nowak & William J. Chopik & Jeewon Oh, 2023. "Marital Status Differences in Loneliness Among Older Americans During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(5), pages 1-25, October.
    13. Tamar Khitarishvili & Kijong Kim, 2015. "The great recession and unpaid work time in the United States - Does poverty matter?," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 12(1), pages 19-48, December.
    14. Aubrey H. Fine & Alan M. Beck & Zenithson Ng, 2019. "The State of Animal-Assisted Interventions: Addressing the Contemporary Issues That Will Shape the Future," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-19, October.
    15. Thomas Hansen & Thomas Sevenius Nilsen & Marit Knapstad & Vegard Skirbekk & Jens Skogen & Øystein Vedaa & Ragnhild Bang Nes, 2022. "Covid-fatigued? A longitudinal study of Norwegian older adults’ psychosocial well-being before and during early and later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 463-473, September.
    16. Rebecca Utz, 2014. "Walking the Dog: The Effect of Pet Ownership on Human Health and Health Behaviors," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 327-339, April.
    17. Charlene M. Kalenkoski & Thomas Korankye, 2022. "Enriching Lives: How Spending Time with Pets is Related to the Experiential Well-Being of Older Americans," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 489-510, April.
    18. Stefania Pascut & Susanna Feruglio & Cristiano Crescentini & Alessio Matiz, 2022. "Predictive Factors of Anxiety, Depression, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Community-Dwelling and Institutionalized Elderly during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-18, September.
    19. Satu Ojala & Pasi Pyöriä, 2015. "Working around the clock? - The time and location of paid work in Finland 1979-2010," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 12(1), pages 73-96, December.
    20. Das, Bhibha M. & Sartore-Baldwin, Melanie L., 2019. "Development of a logic model for a service learning, dog walking course for college students," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-1.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5655-:d:809702. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.