Association of attachment with level of physical activity among dog owners: A cross-sectional study.

This cross-sectional study examined the association of attachment with the frequency of dog walking and physical activity level among dog owners. We analyzed data collected in an internet survey conducted by the Japan Pet Food Association in 2023. Valid data were obtained from 1041 dog owners. The mean (SD) age of participants was 52.5 (14.9) years, with 57.5% being women. Ordinal logistic regression models showed that a higher attachment score was associated with a higher frequency of dog walking after controlling for important confounders (B = 0.04, SE = 0.02, p<0.01, Adjusted R2 = 0.03). Linear regression models showed that a higher attachment score was associated with a higher moderate-vigorous physical activity level (B = 1.43, SE = 0.44, p<0.01, Adjusted R2 = 0.01). These results suggest that dog owners with strong attachment maintain physical activity levels through caring for their dogs. Higher levels of physical activity might have protective effects against adverse health outcomes.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Taniguchi, Ikeuchi. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)