Institutions and Social Mechanisms (IASM) Consortium, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
PLoS One. 2006 Dec 27;1(1):e109. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000109.
Pet ownership is thought to have health benefits, but not all scientific explorations have been founded on proper applications of representative samples or statistically correct methodologies. Databanks have been too small for proper statistical analyses; or, instead of a random sample, participation has been voluntary. The direction of causality has been evaluated incorrectly or control of relevant factors noted deficient. This study examined the associations of pet ownership with perceived health and disease indicators by taking into account socio-demographic background factors together with health risk factors, including exercise.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The present study used baseline data from the 15-year Health and Social Support Study (the HeSSup Study). The Finnish Population Register Centre was used to draw population-based random samples stratified according to gender and four age groups (20-24, 30-34, 40-44, and 50-54 years). A total of 21,101 working-aged Finns responded to the baseline survey questionnaire of the 15-year HeSSup Study in 1998. Ordinal and binary logistic regression was used to analyze the cross-sectional data. Pet ownership was associated with poor rather than good perceived health. BMI surfaced as the risk factor most strongly associated with pet ownership.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Pet owners set in their ways and getting older were found to have a slightly higher BMI than the rest. Additional research is needed for the testing of hypotheses involving effects of pet ownership with various health dimensions within population groups that are composed of different kinds of background characteristics.
人们认为拥有宠物对健康有益，但并非所有科学探索都基于具有代表性的样本或正确的统计方法。数据库太小，无法进行适当的统计分析；或者，参与不是随机的，而是自愿的。因果关系的方向被错误评估，或者对相关因素的控制被认为存在缺陷。本研究通过考虑社会人口背景因素以及健康风险因素（包括锻炼），同时考虑了社会人口背景因素以及健康风险因素（包括锻炼），研究了宠物拥有与感知健康和疾病指标的关联。
方法/主要发现：本研究使用了为期 15 年的健康和社会支持研究（HeSSup 研究）的基线数据。芬兰人口登记中心根据性别和四个年龄组（20-24、30-34、40-44 和 50-54 岁）抽取基于人群的随机样本。共有 21101 名芬兰工作年龄的人在 1998 年回复了为期 15 年的 HeSSup 研究的基线调查问卷。使用有序和二元逻辑回归分析横断面数据。宠物拥有与较差的感知健康相关，而不是较好的感知健康。BMI 是与宠物拥有最密切相关的风险因素。
结论/意义：发现习惯养宠物且年龄较大的宠物主人的 BMI 略高于其他人。需要进行更多的研究来测试与宠物拥有与不同健康维度相关的假设，这些研究涉及不同背景特征的人群群体。
