O R I G I N A L A R T I C L E
The in?uence of dog ownership in childhood on the sociality of elderly Japanese men
Miho NAGASAWA and Mitsuaki OHTA
Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology,Azabu University,Sagamihara,Japan
ABSTRACT
In Japan,care for the elderly has been a serious social issue.The relationship between dog ownership and health of the elderly has attracted considerable attention,but it is still unclear whether dog ownership affects the health of owners.In this study,we focused on the experiences of dog ownership in the past.The questionnaire survey was conducted targeting elderly Japanese men and asking them to clarify whether the experience of dog ownership in the past in?uences their current mental and physical health.To examine the characteristics of the experience of dog ownership,we divided past dog owners by a hierarchical cluster analysis using the variables related to the experiences of dog ownership.We added the ‘never owned a dog’group to the three groups that were provided by the cluster analysis,and conducted analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis using the variables of physical and mental health.The results showed that the group that owned their?rst dog at an early age and owned more dogs later scored higher in the companionship and social support scales.These results suggested that the experiences of dog ownership in childhood were related to the sociality of older men,such as the enhancement of their companionship with others.
Key words:childhood,dog,elderly,mental health,ownership.
INTRODUCTION
According to the Japanese Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare,the proportion of older people aged65 and above is rapidly increasing,and it will be over 25%of the total Japanese population in2015(Minis-try of Health&Labour and Welfare2003).Care for the elderly has been a serious social issue in Japan.They experience psychological challenges due to the deaths of their partners and friends and changes in their social environment.Moreover,the experiences with age-related decline in their health often result in physical and mental diseases,which should be treated.
It has been suggested that the ownership of com-panion animals and emotional attachment to their pets may prevent a decline in the mental health of the elderly.Early studies on the effect of companion animals on the physical and mental health of the elderly dealt with the relationship between pet own-ership and their health conditions,such as longer sur-vival following myocardial infarction,fewer doctor contacts,and decrease in minor health problems (Friedmann et al.1980;Siegel1990;Serpell1991).The largest survey in Australia reported that male pet owners had signi?cantly lower systolic blood pressure and triglyceride and cholesterol levels than male non-owners(Anderson et al.1992).
The relationship between human health and pet ownership was analyzed considering personal factors such as socioeconomic status,family size,stress level, social support,and attachment to pets.Ory and Gold-berg(1981)conducted an interview survey of elderly women on the effect of pet ownership on their well-being and found that the degree of attachment to pets, rather than whether they had their own pets or not, correlated with the happiness of elderly women.In addition,they found that the higher the social status of the owners,the happier they felt.Goldmeier(1986) also examined the effect of pet ownership on elderly women and suggested that pet ownership attenuated the sense of loneliness among women living alone. Strong attachment to pets by the elderly was asso-ciated with a lower level of depression in pet owners who had experienced great distress in the past and had little social support,although pet ownership alone failed to prevent depression(Garrity et al.1989).Miller et al.(1992)demonstrated that people who enjoyed Correspondence:Miho Nagasawa,Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology,Azabu University,Sagamihara, Kanagawa229-8501,Japan.(Email:mihnag@https://www.doczj.com/doc/c718187441.html,) Received8December2008;accepted for publication7Sep-tember2009.
Animal Science Journal(2010)81,377–383doi:10.1111/j.1740-0929.2010.00741.x ?2010The Authors
Journal compilation?2010Japanese Society of Animal Science
interaction with pets tended to participate in social activities more than non-pet owners.Raina et al. (1999)showed that pet ownership maintained or slightly enhanced the physical health of the elderly, and it could dilute the negative impact of lack of social support.Japanese researchers reported that emotional togetherness with pets decreased the depression and loneliness of elderly people living in an urban setting; moreover,they demonstrated that pet ownership was not directly related to depression(Ando&Kodama 1998;Ando2001).Dog ownership and daily contact with the companion animal were related to the instru-mental activities of daily living of the elderly(Saito et al.2001).
However,some studies suggested that there was no signi?cant relationship between dog ownership or the degree of attachment to pets and the physical or mental conditions of the elderly(Miller&Lago1990; Simons et al.2000).Tucker et al.(1995)also showed that the risk of death was not associated with the frequencies of playing with pets.Some studies found that some elderly people caring for a pet or having stronger attachment to dogs were associated with negative health and mental outcomes(Parslow et al. 2005;Kaneko2006).These studies suggest that pet ownership does not confer health bene?ts for the elderly.
Raina et al.(1999)said that a more complex rela-tionship was observed between pet ownership and the well-being of the elderly.Such inconsistency in the results may be due to the long and different experiences of the elderly,which must include many factors that in?uence their mental and physical health,such as changes in social environments and critical life events(Holmes&Rahe1967;Lazarus& Folkman1984).Moreover,it has been said that childhood experiences in?uence emotional condi-tions post-growth(Bowlby1969;Rymer1993; Chisholm1998).It was reported that keeping com-panion animals provides desirable effects for children to develop healthy personalities(Covert et al.1985; Poresky&Hendrix1990;Endenburg&Baarda 1995).These effects in?uenced humane attitudes in young adulthood(Paul&Serpell1993),and it is hoped that they last for life.Therefore,in order to investigate the effect of pet ownership on the elderly, not only the present conditions of pet ownership but also the past histories of their relationships with animals would have to be considered.We hypoth-esized that elderly people’s current mental and physi-cal health were in?uenced by their experiences of dog ownership in childhood.We focused on the experiences of dog ownership in the past,such as the age when they owned their?rst dog,the total number of dogs they owned,and the duration of dog ownerships,and we conducted a questionnaire survey targeting elderly Japanese men.MATERIALS AND METHODS
Subjects
The subjects were elderly Japanese men,65–75years old (n=220,mean?SD:73.43?3.38years old).They were randomly selected from university alumni membership lists. To avoid a bias in attitude toward animals,subjects with careers or academic pursuits related to animals,biological or veterinary sciences,or to animal-related work,were excluded from the study.
Questionnaire procedures
Two questionnaires were prepared for this study.Question-naire No.1assessed the subjects’demographic characteris-tics,companionship,health conditions and experiences of dog ownership.The subjects who own/owned dogs were asked about their experiences of dog ownership(see Dog-related variables for the details).Questionnaire No.2included four psychological scales:The Sense of a Life Worth Living Scale(Kondo&Kamada1998),the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale(Japanese version,Moroi1991),Jichi Medical School Social Support Scale(JMS-SSS,Tsutsumi et al.2000),and the Scale of Attachment to Dogs(Yamada2000),which were answered by only present and past dog owners.Question-naire No.1was sent to subjects by mail,and Questionnaire No.2was sent to all those who responded to Questionnaire No.1.The response rates for Questionnaires1and2were 70.00%(224/320)and68.75%(220/320),respectively. Measurement of variables
Predictor variables
Demographic descriptors.The subjects were asked their age, residence area,family structure,occupation and hobbies.The responses of occupation and hobbies were valued as below: At work=1,Retired=0;Have some hobbies=1,Have no hobby=0.Regarding family structure,the number of people within a household was used for the analysis(Stammbach& Turner1999).
Dog-related variables.The degree of attachment to dogs and the experiences of dog ownership in the past were used as predictor variables in this study.The Scale of Attachment to Dogs was modi?ed for Japanese pet owners based on the Pet Attachment Scale(Holcomb et al.1985).The subjects were asked to answer40questions on a?ve-point scale(5=I think very much,4=I think so,3=I do not know,2=I do not think so,1=I do not think at all),which was divided into six subscales(dependence on dogs,subservience from dogs, annoyance with and rejection of dogs,sharing a bed with dogs,indoor-ownership,and communication with dogs). The scores of all subscales were considered for the principal component analysis.From the results of the analysis,the sum of three subscales,namely,‘dependence on dogs,’‘sub-servience from dogs,’and‘communication with dogs,’were used for analysis of variance(ANOVA)and a multiple linear regression analysis(the contribution rate was83.3%). Regarding the experiences of dog ownership,subjects who had experiences of dog ownership were asked about their age when they owned their?rst dog,the total number of dogs they owned,duration of dog ownership,whether they took care of their dogs(walking and feeding;by them-selves=1,not by themselves=0),and where the dogs were kept(indoor=1,outdoor=0).
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Dependent variables
Health factor.The subjects were asked about their health conditions,frequencies of doctor visits per month,medical costs per month(1=under\500,2=\500–1000,3=\1000–5000,4=\5000–10000,5=\10000or more),and whether they suffered from any chronic disease(0=have no disease, 1=have disease).The responses were analyzed using the principal component analysis,and one component was extracted(contribution rate was58.96%).The principal component scores were used for the multiple linear regres-sion analysis.
Companionship factor.The subjects were asked to answer three questions on a six-point scale(5=excellent,4=fair, 3=somewhat,2=a little,1=little,0=none):the degree of interpersonal relationship with their neighbors and the degree of width and depth of their https://www.doczj.com/doc/c718187441.html,ing the
principal component analysis,one component was extracted from the responses(contribution rate was59.40%)to gen-erate the principal component scores,which were used for the multiple linear regression analysis.
Social support factor.JMS-SSS is used to measure the degree of social support that subjects accepted from their partners and friends.All the subjects were asked ten questions each about their relationships with their partners or friends,and they answered them on a four-point scale(4=I think very much,3=I think so,2=I do not think so,1=I do not think at all)(reliability coef?cient0.89–0.95).Using the principal component analysis,one component was extracted from the responses(contribution rate was52.19%)to generate the principal component scores,which were used for the mul-tiple linear regression analysis.
The sense of a life worth living scale.This psychological scale is designed to measure the attitude of the subjects toward their lives and comprised31questions and four subscales. The subjects who answered‘yes’were valued at3,and‘no opinion’and‘no’responses were valued at2and1,respec-tively.All questions were considered to be of equal weight, and their responses were added together(Cronbach’s a coef-?cient0.62–0.85).
The revised UCLA loneliness scale.This scale comprises20 questions,and the respondents answered through a four-point scale(4=I think very much,3=I think so,2=I do not think so,1=I do not think at all).All questions were con-sidered to be of equal weight,and their responses were combined(Cronbach’s a coef?cient0.87–0.91). Statistical analyses
To obtain dependent variables,we used the principal component analysis.To compare the characteristics of sub-jects,we conducted cluster analysis,ANOVA,and chi-square tests.The ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis were performed to examine the relation between variables.Results were expressed as mean?SD(SPSS v.13.0).
RESULTS
The state of dog ownership
The ratio of elderly men who owned dogs at present was8.64%.Moreover,61.82%of elderly men had experiences of dog ownership in the past(Table1).
Cluster analysis of the experience of
dog ownership
To examine the characteristics of the experience of dog ownership,we divided past dog owners by a hierar-chical cluster analysis using six variables related to the experience of dog ownership:the age when they had owned the?rst dog,total number of dogs that they had owned,total duration of dog ownership,the main caretaker who fed the dogs,the main caretaker who took the dogs for walks,and the main place where the dogs were housed.Visual examination of the dendro-gram showed that subjects could be divided into three separate groups.The number of subjects in each group was as follows:Group1:n=19,Group2:n=60, Group3:n=57.When the six variables were com-pared between the three groups,signi?cant differences were found between Groups1,2and3in the age when they had owned the?rst dog(P<0.001),the number of dogs that they had owned(P<0.01),and the main caretaker who fed the dogs(P<0.001, Table2).Group1had mid-experiences of dog owner-ship,which was named the Mid-Experienced group (Mid-E).Group2,which reported older age when they owned their?rst dog and owned fewer dogs,was named the Less Experienced group(LE).Group3, who reported younger age when they had?rst owned dogs and had owned more dogs,was named the More Experienced group(ME).Although there were no sig-ni?cant differences,the ME group tended to be higher in the score of attachment to dogs(P=0.133,Table2).
ANOVA among three groups by the
differences in the experiences of
dog ownership
We added the Never Owned a dog group(NO)to the three groups that were provided by the cluster analysis and conducted ANOVA using?ve dependent variables: the Health factor,Companionship factor,Social Support factor,the Sense of a Life Worth Living,and Loneliness.The results showed signi?cant differences among groups in the Health factor(P<0.001),Com-Table1The information of participants
n=220Mean?SD(range)
or number(%) Age(years)73.43?3.38(65–75) Number of people within
a household
1.08?0.59(0–6)
At work56(25.45) Having some hobbies204(92.73) Present dog owners19(8.64)
Past dog owners?136(61.82) Never dog owners84(38.18)
?Those who have the experience of dog ownership(including
present owners).
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panionship factor(P<0.01)and Social Support factor (P<0.001).By the post-hoc test of the Bonferroni method,we obtained some signi?cant differences: Health factor:between LE and ME,and ME and NO; Companionship factor:between ME and NO;and Social Support factor:between LE and ME(P<0.05, Table3).
Multiple linear regression analysis by demographic and dog-related variables To analyze the effect of past dog ownership on present physical and mental conditions,multiple linear regres-sion analysis was conducted.We attempted to predict the levels of each factor and scale by using the follow-ing variables:the number of people in the household, whether subjects were working,whether they had hobbies,whether they presently owned dogs,and the degree of attachment to their dogs.We also added the age when they had?rst owned a dog,the number of dogs they had owned,and whether they were the main caretaker for feeding their dogs,which showed signi?cant differences among the three groups (Table2),as the variables related to dog ownership experience.The results indicated that the Social Support factor(R2=0.261,P<0.001)and Sense of Life Worth Living(R2=0.172,P<0.05)showed sig-ni?cant equalities.The age when they had?rst owned a dog and whether they were working were signi?-cantly related to the Social Support factor and Sense of Life Worth Living.The attachment to dogs tended to be related to Sense of Life Worth Living;however,it was not signi?cant(Table4).
DISCUSSION
Many studies have stated that not only dog ownership but also personal characteristics of dog owners and strength of the attachment with their dogs are related to the physical and mental health of dog owners.On the other hand,some studies suggested that there was no correlation or rather a negative correlation between the attachment to dogs and the mental health of owners.It is still not clear whether a relationship with dogs de?nitely bene?ts their owners.It was con-sidered that dog ownership was in?uenced by many cultural and social factors(Gunter1999).In particular, it is dif?cult to predict something based on the study of elderly people because their characteristics are a result of complex and diverse factors.Moreover,it is dif?cult to show whether good physical health of older dog owners may be the result of,and not required for,dog ownership.Further,it is said that childhood experi-ences may have an impact on shaping a person’s char-acter or attachment(Sroufe et al.1983;Elicker et al. 1992).Therefore,this study focused on the relations between the experiences of dog ownership in the past and the present physical and mental health of elderly men.
Table2The comparison of three clusters regarding the experiences of dog ownership in the past
LE(n=60)Mid-E(n=19)ME(n=57)F/c2P
Age when they?rst owned a dog?41.38?5.60b27.37?2.14a9.49?4.68c627.09??<0.001 Number of dogs that they had owned? 1.22?0.52m 1.53?0.70m,n 1.81?1.08n7.55??<0.01 Total duration of dog ownership(year)? 6.40?4.808.32?4.477.33?5.41 1.20??n.s. Main caretaker(feed)?§33.30%(20)y,z0.00%(0)x40.40%(23)z16.45§§<0.001 Main caretaker(walk)??58.33%(35)42.11%(8)68.42%(39) 4.30§§n.s. Main place where the dogs were housed?,??21.67%(13)26.32%(5)22.81%(13)0.18§§n.s. Attachment to dogs74.83?20.9575.65?15.0880.28?14.69 1.04??n.s.
?ANOVA.?Pearson chi-square.§The rate of subjects who fed dogs by themselves(number).?The rate of subjects who took the dogs for a walk by themselves(number).??The rate of subjects who kept their dogs indoors(number).??F(2133).§§c2(2136).a,b,c,m,n P<0.001;
x,y,z P<0.01.The LE(the Less Experienced group)is a group whose average age when subjects?rst owned dogs is oldest and owned fewer dogs in their lives.The ME(the More Experienced group)is a group whose average age of the?rst dog ownership is youngest,and owned more dogs.The Mid-E(the Mid-Experienced group)had mid-experiences of dog ownership.
Table3The comparison of four groups by the differences in the experiences of dog ownership regarding?ve dependant variables
LE(n=60)Mid-E(n=19)ME(n=57)NO(n=84)F(2,216)P Health factor?-0.09?1.11a0.26?0.43a,b0.48?0.93b-0.33?0.94a8.82<0.001 Companionship factor-0.04?0.93m,n0.17?0.86m,n0.30?0.89m-0.31?1.01n 4.93<0.01 Social support factor-0.39?0.73x0.21?0.81x,y0.42?0.68y0.05?1.00x,y7.24<0.001 Sense of life worth-living67.48?11.0768.22?6.0170.96?7.8668.40?12.31 1.01n.s. Loneliness?40.34?7.6341.17?6.4840.96?7.5238.56?7.85 1.25n.s.
?The higher the score is,the worse the degree of physical health.?The higher the score is,the higher the degree of loneliness.a–b,m–n, x–y;P<0.05.The LE(the Less Experienced group)is a group whose average age when subjects?rst owned dogs is oldest and owned fewer dogs in their lives.The ME(the More Experienced group)is a group whose average age of the?rst dog ownership is youngest,and owned more dogs.The Mid-E(the Mid-Experienced group)had mid-experiences of dog ownership.
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Based on the experiences of dog ownership,we divided the subjects by a hierarchical cluster analysis and obtained three clusters.The characteristic of each cluster was as follows.The LE group had the oldest average age when subjects owned dogs for the ?rst time (41.38years old),and they owned the fewest number of dogs over their lives.One in three older men in the LE group fed their dogs by themselves.The ME group had the youngest average age for ?rst dog ownership and owned the most number of dogs.More than 40%in the ME group fed their dogs by themselves.The Mid-E group was an average of 27.37years old when they owned dogs for the ?rst time,and none of them fed their dogs by themselves (Table 2).It may be natural that the younger the age when someone owned a dog,the more dogs he would own in his life,because the period when he owned pets may in?uence his attitude toward animals later in life (Kidd &Kidd 1980;Serpell 1981;Poresky 1989).Because it was considered that pet ownership depended on the stage of the human life cycle (Albert &Bulcroft 1987),referring to the Japa-nese average life stage showed by the Ministry of Health and Labour and Welfare (2003),these results inferred that dog ownership was of three types depending on the different stages of life:during child-hood;for their family after marriage;and for them-selves or their spouses after the departure of their children.In the Mid-E group,the fact that the rate of feeding their dogs by themselves was 0%suggested that dog ownership was not suitable for them.
To examine the in?uences of dog ownership,these groups and the NO group were analyzed using the ANOVA and post hoc tests.The results showed that the ME group obtained higher scores than the NO group in the Companionship factor,and higher than the LE group in the Social Support factor (Table 3).The ?rst experience of dog ownership for the ME group was when they were around 9years old.It is said that when a child is around 10years old,social develop-ment is progressing and that children in middle-childhood were most affected by interaction with pets (Levinson 1978).These results suggested that the experiences of dog ownership in childhood may con-tribute to building a positive attitude toward human relationships.However,because the characteristics of the ME group were not limited to only the youngest age when they owned their ?rst dog but also to the greater number of dogs they owned,it remains pos-sible that the total number of dogs they owned in?u-enced the results obtained from the elderly men.With regard to physical health,the healthiest group was not ME but NO.Regarding this difference with previous studies,the health indicator in this study may have been inappropriate.There are doubts about whether physical health performance is correlated with medical costs and the frequencies of doctor visits because of the
T a b l e 4M u l t i p l e l i n e a r r e g r e s s i o n a n a l y s i s o f e a c h w e l l -b e i n g f a c t o r a n d v a r i a b l e s ,p r e d i c t e d b y n u m b e r o f p e o p l e w i t h i n a h o u s e h o l d ,o c c u p a t i o n ,h o b b y a n d d o g o w n e r s h i p
n =140
H e a l t h f a c t o r C o m p a n i o n s h i p f a c t o r S o c i a l s u p p o r t f a c t o r S e n s e o f l i f e w o r t h -l i v i n g L o n e l i n e s s
b
r b r b r b r b r N u m b e r o f p e o p l e w i t h i n a h o u s e h o l d 0.0270.1480.167-0.0060.0800.312**0.0910.067-0.1070.052O c c u p a t i o n ?-0.108-0.004-0.276*-0.1600.235*0.314**0.0910.219*0.1990.084H o b b y §0.1040.0820.1410.0780.044-0.0080.0940.105-0.163-0.033P r e s e n t d o g o w n e r s h i p ?0.0420.004-0.0030.0040.0280.082-0.010-0.0300.1360.036A t t a c h m e n t t o d o g s -0.040-0.0650.0420.092-0.073-0.0910.208?0.228*-0.110-0.100A g e w h e n t h e y ?r s t h a d o w n e d a d o g -0.295-0.272**-0.273*-0.216*-0.387**-0.235*-0.099-0.247**0.058-0.019N u m b e r o f d o g s t h a t t h e y h a d o w n e d -0.182-0.060-0.0080.216*-0.073-0.207*0.1540.266**-0.054-0.174M a i n c a r e t a k e r w h o f e d d o g s 0.0440.027
0.0630.008
0.0880.139
-0.140-0.221*
-0.194-0.142
F (8,127)1.0671.5603.875***2.312*0.862R 0.2960.3540.5110.4150.270A d j u s t e d R 2
0.087
0.125
0.261
0.172
0.073
*P <0.05,**P <0.01,***P <0.001,?P =0.057.?T h o s e w h o w e r e a t w o r k =1,r e t i r e d =0.§T h o s e w h o h a v e h o b b i e s =1,n o t =0.?T h o s e w h o o w n d o g s a t p r e s e n t =1,n o t =0.b ,S t a n d a r d p a r t i a l r e g r e s s i o n c o e f ?c i e n t ;r ,P e a s o n ’s p r o d u c t -m o m e n t s c o r r e l a t i o n c o e f ?c i e n t .
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peculiar Japanese health insurance system(Nakata 1999).It will be necessary to develop a more accurate health index.
Finally,we conducted multiple regression analyses using demographic variables and dog-related variables as prediction variables(Table4).The results,though low-adjusted for multiple coef?cients of determina-tion,presented signi?cant equalities in the Social Support factor and the scale of Sense of Life Worth Living.In the Social Support factor,dog ownership from an earlier age increased the scores signi?cantly and whether they were working or not also affected the scores.The degree of attachment to dogs showed the highest coef?cient value in Sense of Life Worth Living,but not signi?cantly(P=0.053).With regard to the correlation between prediction variables and each factor and scale,all factors and Sense of Life Worth Living were correlated signi?cantly with their age when they?rst owned a dog.On the other hand,dog ownership at present was not related to any factor or scale in any analysis.As some previous studies reported(e.g.Ory&Goldberg1981;Garrity et al. 1989),it would not be appropriate to predict the state of health of elderly persons depending on whether they owned dogs at present.These previous studies also suggested that the degree of attachment to pets was related to their mental states.Our results showed that there was a difference in the tendency of attach-ment to dogs between the ME and LE groups, although both the groups had the possibility that they owned dogs for themselves and took care of them. Whether the ME and LE groups owned dogs in their childhood may have been related to the differences in their attachments to dogs.Therefore,it could be con-sidered that these dog-related experiences in child-hood may serve as an important element in in?uencing the development of relationships with others.
Based on the results of this study,the effect of dog ownership on the mental condition of an older dog owner may be related to the experiences of dog own-ership in the past,especially in early childhood.This study dealt solely with dog ownership,and there was a possibility that the elderly people had the experi-ence of owning some other animal during their child-hood.Although further research will be needed, these results would not only be helpful for future studies on the relationship between the elderly and their companion animals but also may have implica-tions for the effect of animals chosen for companion-ship by children.
Conclusion
The experiences of dog ownership in childhood were related to the sociality of elderly men,such as the enhancement to companionship with others.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported in part by the CAIRC Schol-arship Program from the Companion Animal Informa-tion and Research Center,Tokyo in Japan. REFERENCES
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