Applebaum Jennifer W, McDonald Shelby E, Zsembik Barbara A
Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, 330 Newell Dr, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
Denver Zoological Foundation, 2300 Steele St., Denver, CO, 80205, USA.
SSM Popul Health. 2023 Jan 14;21:101344. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101344. eCollection 2023 Mar.
It is hypothesized that pets provide benefits to human health by buffering the deleterious effects of stress, but varying exposure to chronic stress via social position is rarely considered in these conceptual and empirical models. Allostatic load is an index of biological and physical measures that represents cumulative wear and tear on the body via chronic stress exposure. In this study, we use the 2006-2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative, longitudinal panel survey of adults aged 50+ in the United States, to test whether and to what extent pet ownership has an impact on allostatic load, and whether pet ownership moderates the effects of socioeconomic position on allostatic load. Linear mixed effects regression models revealed that pet owners had significantly lower allostatic load scores than those who do not own pets; however, after adjusting for socioeconomic position (i.e., wealth, education, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status), the effect of pet ownership was no longer significant. We estimated a series of models stratified by sociodemographic groups to test moderation effects. Among those who had a high school education, pet owners had lower allostatic load scores, whereas among those who had attended some college, pet owners had higher scores. Among those who were aged 80+, pet owners had higher scores than those who did not own pets. These findings suggest that the magnitude of the effect of pet ownership on allostatic load may not be sufficient to counteract experiences of high chronic stress as experienced by lower-status groups. Supporting the human-animal bond may contribute to improving older adult population health if paired with efforts to address the underlying causes of population health disparities.
据推测，宠物通过缓冲压力的有害影响对人类健康有益，但在这些概念和实证模型中，很少考虑因社会地位不同而导致的慢性压力暴露差异。应激负荷是一种生物学和身体测量指标，代表了因长期暴露于慢性压力而对身体造成的累积损耗。在本研究中，我们使用了2006 - 2016年的健康与退休研究数据，这是一项对美国50岁及以上成年人具有全国代表性的纵向面板调查，以测试宠物所有权是否以及在多大程度上对应激负荷产生影响，以及宠物所有权是否会调节社会经济地位对应激负荷的影响。线性混合效应回归模型显示，宠物主人的应激负荷得分显著低于非宠物主人；然而，在调整社会经济地位（即财富、教育程度、种族、民族、性别、婚姻状况）后，宠物所有权的影响不再显著。我们估计了一系列按社会人口统计学群体分层的模型，以测试调节效应。在高中教育程度的人群中，宠物主人的应激负荷得分较低，而在接受过一些大学教育的人群中，宠物主人的得分较高。在80岁及以上的人群中，宠物主人的得分高于非宠物主人。这些发现表明，宠物所有权对应激负荷的影响程度可能不足以抵消低社会地位群体所经历的高慢性压力。如果在努力解决人口健康差距的根本原因的同时，支持人 - 动物纽带关系可能有助于改善老年人群的健康状况。
