Study finds women gain more strength from pets than men

By Stephen Beech

Women gain more strength from owning pets than men, according to a new study.

Researchers found that women and people who spent more time with a pet or another animal reported feeling more attached to the animal and receiving more socio-emotional support from it.

But the study of Swiss adults found little evidence for links between pet ownership and participants' overall health and well-being.

Previous evidence suggests that links between health and pet ownership may involve interactions between several factors, including the species of animal, the owners' socio-demographic characteristics, and particulars of the human-animal relationship.

But few studies had examined all of the factors at once.

To address that gap, researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland analyzed survey data from 2,328 Swiss adults.

The team investigated whether factors such as pet ownership, regular animal contact, and attachment to an animal were statistically linked to aspects of well-being, such as physical health, social support, and loneliness.

They also examined links between participants' demographic characteristics and their relationships with animals.

The analysis revealed some demographic links. For example, women, participants who spent more time with an animal, and those interacting with dogs tended to feel more attached to the animal and more socio-emotionally supported by it.

The researchers found no overarching association between participants' health and pet ownership or regular animal contact.

However, some links emerged. For example, pet owners tended to report being less healthy and smoking cigarettes slightly more often than non-owners.

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Participants who felt more supported by an animal reported lower psychological well-being and more loneliness, according to the findings published in the journal PLOS One.

Adult who spent more time with an animal reported higher psychological well-being and more frequent smoking.

The researchers said their findings didn't confirm any cause-effect relationship.

For example, they noted that while it is possible pet ownership leads to worse health, it is also possible that unhealthier Swiss are more likely to obtain pets.

Study lead author Rahel Marti said: "Our findings suggest that simply owning a pet is not associated with better health or well-being.

"Instead, we found that the relationship people have with their animals is much more nuanced than a simple yes-or-no question of pet ownership.

"Two people may both own a dog, but their relationships with that dog can be very different.

"Our findings suggest that understanding these differences may be more informative than simply comparing pet owners with non-pet owners."

She added: "Rather than asking whether someone owns a pet, future research should consider how people interact with their animals and what role the animal plays in their lives.

"What appeared to matter in some cases was not pet ownership itself, but whether people experienced their animal as a source of socio-emotional support and how much time they spent together.

"The inconsistent findings reported in previous studies may partly reflect the fact that pet ownership is often treated as a simple yes-or-no variable.

"Our results suggest that pet ownership is a multidimensional construct that includes characteristics of the owner, the animal, and their relationship."