Summary: New evidence indicates that acquiring a dog can reduce feelings of loneliness and improve some negative moods for new owners within months.
Source: University of Sydney
A new trial led by the University of Sydney adds support to the idea that dogs can improve human wellbeing. The PAWS trial found that people who became new dog owners reported significantly less loneliness within three months of bringing a dog into their home.
The PAWS trial, a controlled community study published in BMC Public Health, followed 71 Sydney residents over eight months to investigate how dog ownership affects mental well-being. The study compared three groups: people who acquired a dog at the start of the study, people who intended to get a dog but delayed acquisition during the study period, and people who had no plans to own a dog.
Key findings
Researchers from the Charles Perkins Centre and RSPCA NSW reported that participants who acquired a companion dog experienced a meaningful drop in self-reported loneliness within three months, and this reduction remained through the eight-month follow-up. The study also identified evidence that some negative moods — such as feeling upset or scared — decreased after getting a dog. However, the trial did not find a measurable effect on psychological distress as measured by tools that assess symptoms commonly linked to anxiety and depression.
Given that roughly 39 percent of Australian households keep a dog, lead author Lauren Powell, a PhD candidate at the Charles Perkins Centre, said the pilot findings offer important insight into how everyday pet ownership might affect mental health in the community.
“Most previous research has focused on therapeutic visits with dogs in settings such as nursing homes,” Powell explained. “Far less is known about the long-term effects of regular interactions between people and the dogs they live with. Participants in our study often reported meeting neighbours and forming social contacts through walking or being seen with their new dog. In addition, short-term interactions with dogs are known to boost mood, so the repeated daily contact that comes with ownership may produce sustained improvements.”
The study’s design helped reduce the risk that people who planned to get a dog were already in better mental health, strengthening the case that dog acquisition itself contributed to the observed changes.
Why these findings matter
Senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health, noted that modern life has eroded many people’s sense of community and increased social isolation. “If dog ownership encourages people to spend more time outdoors, to walk in their neighbourhoods and to meet others, that benefits both the individual and the wider community,” he said. He added that reducing loneliness is especially important for older adults, because social isolation is linked with higher risks for cardiovascular disease, some cancers, and depression.
What are the next steps?
The authors acknowledge their findings differ from some earlier international studies and stress the need for larger, longer-term trials to clarify how dog ownership influences mental health. They point out that people’s relationships with their dogs are highly individual, which complicates measurement and interpretation.
“This is a new and emerging area of research, particularly given everyone’s relationship with their dog is so different,”
“Developing valid ways to capture the variety of human–dog interactions and how they affect wellbeing is a major part of the challenge ahead,” the researchers said.
The research team is also running parallel studies to examine how dog ownership affects physical activity patterns among owners, which may be another route by which pets influence human health.
Through a collaboration with RSPCA NSW, the Dog Ownership and Human Health Research Node at the Charles Perkins Centre brings together experts in public health, physical activity, disease prevention, behaviour change, health psychology, human–animal interactions, and canine health. The node aims to clarify not only whether dog ownership benefits human health in the community, but also how those benefits could be integrated into health promotion and care systems.
Funding: This research was supported by a research donation provided by Ms Lynne Cattell (University of Sydney grant ID: 183100). The donor did not participate in study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation, report writing, or the decision to publish. The authors report no competing interests.
Source:
University of Sydney
Media Contacts:
Ivy Shih – University of Sydney
Image Source:
The image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Open access — “Companion dog acquisition and mental well-being: a community-based three-arm controlled study”. Lauren Powell, Kate M. Edwards, Paul McGreevy, Adrian Bauman, Anthony Podberscek, Brendon Neilly, Catherine Sherrington & Emmanuel Stamatakis. BMC Public Health. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-019-7770-5.
Abstract
Companion dog acquisition and mental well-being: a community-based three-arm controlled study
Background
Dog ownership is often thought to support mental well-being, but community-based empirical evidence is limited. This study examined changes in human mental well-being following companion dog acquisition using measures of loneliness, positive and negative affect, and psychological distress.
Methods
An eight-month controlled study enrolled 71 participants across three groups: 17 who acquired a dog within one month of baseline (dog acquisition), 29 who planned but delayed dog acquisition until study end (lagged control), and 25 who had no plans to acquire a dog (community control). Participants completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale (scores 0–60), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Kessler10 at baseline, three months and eight months. Repeated measures ANCOVAs were used to assess group-by-time effects, adjusting for age and sex, with post-hoc tests for significant results (p < 0.05).
Results
There was a statistically significant interaction between group and time for loneliness (p = 0.03). In the dog acquisition group, loneliness scores decreased by an estimated 8.41 units (95% CI -16.57, -0.26) from baseline to three months and by 7.12 units (95% CI -12.55, -1.69) from baseline to eight months. A significant group-by-time effect was also observed for positive affect (p = 0.03), although the dog acquisition group did not show a corresponding increase in positive affect.
Conclusions
Acquiring a companion dog may reduce loneliness among community dog owners. These results provide direction for future, larger trials exploring the effects of dog ownership on human mental well-being.
Trial registration
This trial was retrospectively registered on 5 July 2017 with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12617000967381).