No beneficial associations between living with a pet and mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large UK longitudinal sample

Objective

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an unprecedented interest in pet ownership, with many viewing pets as a coping strategy to mitigate isolation, loneliness, anxiety, and depression. However, the evidence that pet ownership is associated with mental health benefits is not conclusive.

Methods

6018 individuals in the UK completed online questionnaires from April 2020 and were recontacted at regular intervals for 12 months. We asked about pet ownership and pet adoption, and examined associations with depression, anxiety and anhedonia symptoms, and loneliness. We tested hypotheses related to dog ownership, exercise frequency and maintaining a daily structure, and the association between ownership and loneliness in individuals living alone.

Results

Pet ownership was not associated with beneficial effects on any of the mental health outcomes at the first assessment or longitudinally. Instead, associations were in the unexpected direction, with owners generally having slightly worse mental health symptoms and loneliness. Dog owners were more likely to report exercising daily or nearly every day (40 %), relative to individuals with no pets (35 %), but were not more likely to maintain a daily schedule. Among individuals living alone, both cat and dog owners were less lonely than non-owners, but effect sizes were small. Initial levels of depression, anxiety, anhedonia or loneliness did not predict subsequent pet adoption.

Conclusion

Our findings challenge the narrative around the beneficial associations between pet ownership and mental health, a probable driver of the “pandemic puppies” phenomenon. The benefits found, for exercise in dog owners and loneliness in pet owners living alone, were marginal.