Impact of pet dog or cat exposure during childhood on mental illness during adolescence: a cohort study

BMC Pediatrics

Table 1 Baseline Covariates for 571 youth included in modeling of pet dog at baseline

Covariate	Total	With pet dog(s) at baseline	Without pet dog(s) at baseline	P value (with pet dog vs. without)
Youth characteristics
# (%) ^a	571	330 (57.79)	241 (42.21)
Child age, years Mean (SD)	6.57 (2.13)	6.60 (2.13)	6.53 (2.14)	0.6913
# (% ) male	304 (53.24)	175 (53.03)	129 (53.53)	0.9065
SCARED ≥ 3 (%) at baseline ^b	73 (12.78)	33 (10.00)	40 (16.60)	0.0197
PARENT or Guardian Characteristics
# (%) relationship: mother^c	451 (80.25)	250 (76.92)	201 (84.81)	0.0204
Mean % (SD) subjects in baseline zip code living in poverty	14.76 (5.40)	14.94 (5.36)	14.50 (5.47)	0.3370
# (%) parent/guardians with positive PHQ at baseline^d	10 (1.81)	4 (1.25)	6 (2.56)	0.3360

^a Total sample size is 571, that excludes 60 subjects with pre-existing/complicated MH diagnoses and excludes 12 subjects with missing baseline SCARED5.
^b This statistical difference was published in a prior study (see Reference 22)
^c Nine parent/guardians did not report on relationship to child
^d 19 parent/guardians did not have baseline PHQ score

ISSN: 1471-2431