Differences in Sociodemographic Characteristics, Health Behaviors, and Health Status Between Canadian Middle-Aged and Older Adult Pet Owners and Non-Owners

Pet ownership is a potentially important, understudied social determinant of health and wellbeing that may support healthy aging. To more robustly measure and interpret associations between pet ownership and health/wellbeing in older adults, it is necessary to identify and control for relevant differences between middle-aged and older adult pet owners and non-owners that may also influence outcomes of interest during the transition to older adulthood and/or in older adulthood. As a first step in the Canadian context, our objective was to examine the associations between pet ownership status and various sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and measures of health/wellbeing in middle-aged and older Canadians. We used data from the 2008–2009 Canadian Community Health Survey – Healthy Aging cohort to examine the associations between pet ownership in Canadians 45 years and older (n = 24,190, weighted n = 13,136,000) and sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and measures of health/wellbeing using weighted logistic regression models, including stratification by sex. Several of the sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and health/wellbeing measures were associated with pet ownership in univariable and/or multivariable models. In the fully adjusted multivariable model, the factors most strongly associated with pet ownership included age, dwelling type, and smoking status, and those in the youngest age category, those living in a single detached home, and current smokers had 2.44-, 2.26-, and 1.64-times higher odds of pet ownership, respectively. Additional factors associated with pet ownership in the fully adjusted model included sex, children in the home, retirement status, having difficulty meeting expenses, province of residence, location, education level, country of birth, race, recent history of a major depressive episode, sense of belonging, and self-reported health. The magnitude or direction of some associations differed when stratified by sex. This work provides the first estimates of differences in sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and health/wellbeing by pet ownership status in middle-aged and older Canadian adults, which has implications for and will support future longitudinal investigations of the associations between pet ownership and health and wellbeing outcomes in this cohort. This will provide important insight into the complex relationship between pet ownership and healthy aging, supporting efforts to better understand and respond to the global challenge of aging populations.