The role of pet attachment in alleviating the negative effects of loneliness on a health-promoting lifestyle: An empirical study based on threshold effects for pet owners

IF 1.6 4区医学 Q4 GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY International Journal of Older People Nursing Pub Date : 2023-07-17 DOI:10.1111/opn.12554

Jiao Lu PhD, Erxing Ren MA, Xinyu Guo MA, Zhongliang Zhou PhD, Yuan Wang MA, Na Zhang MA

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Background

A health-promoting lifestyle is acknowledged as a ‘positive ageing’ strategy for older people. The inevitable decline in their social networks may lead to loneliness and subsequently damage their health-promoting lifestyle. Therefore, pet owning has become a popular way for them to alleviate loneliness. However, the attachment resulting from pet ownership may either facilitate or impede older people's ability to counteract the negative effect of loneliness on health-promoting lifestyles, and this effect may only be observed when pet owners have limited human confidants.

Objectives

To identify the role of pet attachment in alleviating the negative impact of loneliness on a health-promoting lifestyle and its supplementary role in the deficiency of social relationships by analysing the correlation mechanism between pet attachment, loneliness and a health-promoting lifestyle.

Methods

Self-report questionnaires were sent to 879 older people (aged ≥60) with pets in China by using a multistage stratified random sampling method. Cross-sectional threshold regression models were established to analyse the nonlinear effects of loneliness on a health-promoting lifestyle and the different threshold effects among different social relationship levels.

Results

A single threshold value (0.444) was drawn to determine the action mode of pet attachment on the negative relationship between loneliness and a health-promoting lifestyle. When the level of pet attachment exceeded 0.444, the inhibition of loneliness on a health-promoting lifestyle decreased significantly. Additionally, this threshold effect was evident among older people at different levels of social relationships.

Conclusions

The negative effect of loneliness on a health-promoting lifestyle is alleviated by the single threshold effect of pet attachment. Pet–owner relationships can compensate for a lack of social relationships to some extent and alleviate both an individual's loneliness and its negative effect on a health-promoting lifestyle.

Implications for practice

To alleviate loneliness and promote healthy ageing in older people who lack social relationships, the tailored pet intervention strategies that prioritize ‘one health’ at the animal-ecosystem interface that consider their different individual levels of social relationship should be developed.

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宠物依恋在缓解孤独感对健康生活方式负面影响中的作用:基于宠物主人阈值效应的实证研究

促进健康的生活方式被认为是老年人的“积极老龄化”战略。社交网络不可避免的减少可能会导致孤独，进而损害他们促进健康的生活方式。因此，养宠物已经成为他们缓解孤独的一种流行方式。然而，养宠物产生的依恋可能会促进或阻碍老年人抵消孤独对促进健康的生活方式的负面影响的能力，而且这种影响可能只在宠物主人的知己有限的情况下才会被观察到。目的通过分析宠物依恋、孤独感与健康促进生活方式的相关机制，探讨宠物依恋在缓解孤独感对健康促进生活方式的负面影响中的作用，以及宠物依恋对社会关系缺失的补充作用。方法采用多阶段分层随机抽样方法，对879名60岁以上养宠物老年人进行自述问卷调查。建立横截面阈值回归模型，分析孤独感对促进健康生活方式的非线性影响，以及不同社会关系水平的阈值效应差异。结果得出单一阈值(0.444)确定宠物依恋对孤独感与健康生活方式负相关关系的作用模式。当宠物依恋水平超过0.444时，孤独感对促进健康生活方式的抑制作用显著降低。此外，这种阈值效应在不同社会关系层次的老年人中也很明显。结论孤独感对健康生活方式的负面影响被宠物依恋的单阈值效应所缓解。宠物主人的关系可以在一定程度上弥补社会关系的缺乏，减轻个人的孤独感及其对促进健康的生活方式的负面影响。为了减轻缺乏社会关系的老年人的孤独感，促进健康老龄化，应该开发量身定制的宠物干预策略，在动物-生态系统界面上优先考虑“同一健康”，考虑到它们不同的个体社会关系水平。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Older People Nursing Nursing-Gerontology

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

9.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： International Journal of Older People Nursing welcomes scholarly papers on all aspects of older people nursing including research, practice, education, management, and policy. We publish manuscripts that further scholarly inquiry and improve practice through innovation and creativity in all aspects of gerontological nursing. We encourage submission of integrative and systematic reviews; original quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research; secondary analyses of existing data; historical works; theoretical and conceptual analyses; evidence based practice projects and other practice improvement reports; and policy analyses. All submissions must reflect consideration of IJOPN''s international readership and include explicit perspective on gerontological nursing. We particularly welcome submissions from regions of the world underrepresented in the gerontological nursing literature and from settings and situations not typically addressed in that literature. Editorial perspectives are published in each issue. Editorial perspectives are submitted by invitation only.