Pets can ease anxiety, depressive symptoms in women

Women with strong attachment to pets, especially dogs, are at lower risk of anxiety and depressive symptoms, according to a cross-sectional study.

A total of 688 women who voluntarily enrolled in the Mind Body Study (MBS), a substudy of the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS2) focusing on psychosocial factors, were invited to participate in the study. A total of 293 (42.6 percent) expressed interest. Those who reported childhood abuse were oversampled to capture their psychosocial distress in adulthood.

The participants were invited to complete a comprehensive set of online questionnaires, administered twice, 1 year apart (response rate, 77.8 percent in 2013 and 71.0 percent in 2014). Pet attachment was measured using Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS; response rate, 55.7 percent for dogs and 32.9 percent for cats).

Anxiety and depression levels were assessed using the 10-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10), Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), and Crown Crisp Experiential Index phobic anxiety subscale (CCI). These measures were considered individually and combined into an overall z-score measure of anxiety and depression symptoms.

The analysis included 214 participants (mean age 60.8 years), of which 156 (72.6 percent) reported a history of childhood abuse. Those with higher pet attachment on the LAPS score had significantly lower GAD-7 scores (β, −0.17, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], −0.29 to −0.06). There was no association observed with LAPS score and phobic anxiety or depression.

When LAPS score was stratified by pet type, higher dog attachment notably correlated with significantly lower scores in depression (CESD-10: β, −0.47, 95 percent CI, −0.68 to −0.26; K6: β, −0.42, 95 percent CI, −0.54 to −0.31), generalized anxiety (GAD-7: β, −0.47, 95 percent CI, −0.65 to −0.3), and the overall measure of anxiety and depression (z score: β, −0.12, 95 percent CI, −0.17 to −0.08). No association was observed for phobic anxiety (CCI: β, −0.08, 95 percent CI, −0.24 to 0.09).

Meanwhile, cat attachment had no statistically significant association with depression or anxiety.

All effect sizes for the observed associations increased when analyses were restricted to women with a history of childhood abuse.