Centre for Policy on Ageing



Pet ownership is not associated with future health — a nine year prospective study in older Australians
Author(s)	Leon A Simons, Judith Simons, John McCallum
Journal title	Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 19.3, August 2000
Pages	pp 139-142
Keywords	Pet keeping ; Health [elderly] ; Death ; Longitudinal surveys ; Australia.
Annotation	At the start of this longitudinal study in Dubbo, New South Wales (NSW, Australia) of 1,235 men and 1,570 women aged 60+ living in the community, 52% of men and 42% of women owned a pet. Compared with non-owners, older people who owned pets were younger, and more likely to be married, yet they were less likely to live alone or use blood pressure medication. Among women only, pet owners had a greater peak expiratory flow volume than non-owners, and were less likely to have physical disability. After controlling for the confounding effects of age and other factors likely to influence mortality, there was no significant relationship between pet ownership and all-causes mortality in either sex. However, women owners have a slightly reduced risk of hospitalisation. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-001204203 A
Classmark	HVT: CC: CW: 3J: 7YA
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.