New Delhi: Having a pet is the most beautiful phase of life and it is often believed that pets offer the purest form of love to their owners. However, contradicting this, recent research has found that the benefits of pets might be overstated. A study conducted on over 6,000 individuals for 12 months found the opposite of what many think about the popular assumption of improved mental health of the ones who have a pet. In the research, it was revealed that pet owners reportedly had somewhat worse mental health outcomes as compared to the ones who did not own one.
In some cases of people living alone, pet owners were found to be less lonely as compared to the ones who had no pets. The study has been published in the Journal of Mental Health and Prevention. To conduct the study, around 6,018 people in the United Kingdom out of which 54 per cent had pets, while 46 per cent did not. These individuals participated and responded to the online questionnaires from April 2020 and were reconnected in a time interval of 12 months.
According to the authors of the study, pet ownership was not linked with beneficial effects on any sort of mental health results at the first assessment. The owners showed a little bit worse signs of mental health and loneliness problems.
People living alone showed better results
On the other hand, individuals living alone were less lonely when they were compared to the others. The researchers also found that dog owners often tend to engage in everyday physical exercise 40 per cent of them when compared to the other 35 per cent in those not. The raised activity level did not link with better mental health results.
One of the popular culture trends called the ‘cat lady’ mostly seen to represent a middle-aged, lonely and anxious woman owning many cats, was also tested for the study.
It was found that women in the study were more likely to own cats, out of whom 30 per cent of them as compared to 22.7 per cent in men were found to be more lonely, depressed, and anxious than men.
According to the authors of the study, pet ownership was not linked with beneficial effects on any sort of mental health results at the first assessment. The owners showed a little bit worse signs of mental health and loneliness problems. Health Conditions Health News: Latest News from Health Care, Mental Health, Weight Loss, Disease, Nutrition, Healthcare
