In astudy published today inBMC Public Health, Megan Kiely Mueller (Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine) and colleagues used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), an ongoing biennial longitudinal cohort study of approximately 20,000 Americans aged 50 and older, to examine the relationship between multiple health outcomes and pet ownership. Their sample included 1,657 of the participants of the HRS. To assess the characteristics of pet ownership, participants were asked to report whether they currently owned a pet, types of pets (dog, cat, small mammal, bird, fish, reptile, or other), number of each type of pet, and number of years they have had pets.

Participants were also asked about their attachment to pets using the Pet Attachment Questionnaire which included the following items:

“Do you consider your pet a friend?”, “Do you talk to your pet?”, “Would you say that owning a pet adds to your happiness?”, “Do you talk to others about your pet?”, “Do you often play with your pet?” and “Does your pet know how you feel about things?”

Overall health was also measured, using a five point self-report rating from 1 = Excellent and 5 = Poor. In addition, participants were asked if they had ever experienced depression (yes/no) and if they had experienced depression within the last week (yes/no). Finally, frequency of mild, moderate, and vigorous physical activity was also measured.

狗和猫是据报道的宠物，与所研究的样本中的非宠物所有者相比，宠物主人更有可能拥有自己的房屋。作者还发现，宠物的所有权在老年成年中更为普遍。此外，超过80％的宠物主人报告说，他们将宠物视为朋友，定期与宠物交谈，感到宠物增添了幸福，与他人谈论了他们的宠物，并与宠物玩了。

Although more than 60% of dog owners regularly walked their dogs, which may be indicative of maintaining a physically active, healthy lifestyle, there was no significant difference between pet owners and non-owners on overall health status. However, pet ownership was a significant predictor of the likelihood of ever having experienced depression. This could indicate a relationship between pet ownership and depression, but, due to the cross-sectional nature of the study, it is impossible to determine the directionality of that relationship.

So the question arises: Do people become depressed because they have opted to include pets in their lives or do people who are depressed opt to acquire a pet as a way of treating their depression?

应当指出的是，研究发现目前的抑郁症（在上周）与宠物所有权状况无关，这表明宠物的陪伴可能会缓解抑郁症状，或者以前的宠物的丧失以及随后失去伴侣的丧失可能恶化抑郁症状。

作者通过指出，尽管宠物的所有权可能会增加社会互动和支持的潜力，但仍需要更多的研究来探索潜在的健康益处和老年人所独有的挑战。此外，还需要在整个生命过程中确定优化互惠互惠互惠关系的策略的干预和纵向研究，以充分了解宠物所有权对健康的影响。