Social capital and pet ownership - A tale of four cities

Lisa Wood; Karen Martin; Hayley Christian; Steve Houghton; Ichiro Kawachi; Shannen Vallesi; Sandra McCune

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.05.002

Social capital and pet ownership - A tale of four cities

SSM Popul Health. 2017 May 5:3:442-447. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.05.002. eCollection 2017 Dec.

Authors

Lisa Wood¹, Karen Martin¹, Hayley Christian¹, Steve Houghton², Ichiro Kawachi³, Shannen Vallesi¹, Sandra McCune⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia (M431), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
² Faculty of Education, The University of Western Australia (M431), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
³ Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Kresge Building 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁴ WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition, Freeby Lane, Waltham on the Wolds, Leicestershire, UK.

Abstract

•Pet ownership is significantly associated with higher levels of social capital.•Social capital was associated with pet ownership in the U.S. and Australia.•Results are not confined to dog owners nor dog walkers.•Pets are an under-recognized conduit for building social capital.