Dog owner mental health is associated with dog behavioural problems, dog care and dog-facilitated social interaction: a prospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT: Despite numerous qualitative and cross-sectional studies investigating how dog-related factors may impact owners' well-being, empirical studies to test these causal effects are lacking. This prospective cohort study examined the correlation and potential causal effect of 17 dog-related factors with six well-being outcomes (depression, anxiety, loneliness, suicidal ideation, hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being) in dog owners. Over a four-week period, 709 adult dog owners reported their weekly well-being and occurrence of each dog-related factor (e.g. how many times they ran with their dogs). A random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) with significance threshold set at 0.001 was used. Six factors correlated with poorer owner well-being (i.e. aggressive dog behaviour, fear

SUBMITTER: Barcelos AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10709316 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature