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Table 3 Covariate associations with cumulative dog exposure for parents and youth who completed follow-up interview 8 years after the baseline study

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

Covariate

Total

Spearman Correlation Coefficient for Cumulative Dog Exposure

t-statistic (*F-value)

P value

YOUTH

#

241b

   

Mean (SD) youth age in years

14.82 (2.29)

0.077

--

0.2550

% male

55.51

 

0.69

0.4903

Mean (SD) of children in the home

2.23 (1.63)

-0.041

--

0.5302

Mean (SD) Birth order of index child

1.69 (1.08)

0.147

--

0.0313

% full time live with parent

94.17

 

2.02

0.0616

% with public insurance

38.01

 

-2.43

0.0159

% teens who have asthma or allergies

27.66

 

2.29

0.0238

% teens who ever had a bad experience with dog or cat

11.49

 

0.53

0.6025

% Pet dog at T1 a

61.22

 

8.92

< 0.0001

Mean (SD) SCARED41 score at follow-up

19.50 (16.19)

0.042

--

0.5206

Mean (SD) PHQ8 score at follow-up

4.00 (5.16)

-0.021

--

0.7491

Mean (SD) MSPSS score at follow-up

70.00 (13.62)

-0.056

--

0.3875

Mean (SD) ACE-Q score at follow-up

1.11 (1.41)

-0.023

--

0.7288

PARENT or GUARDIAN

Mean (SD) parent age in years

43.40 (6.74)

0.003

--

0.9680

% mothers

91.29

 

1.40

0.1761

% married and living together

70.95

 

1.53

0.1278

% who had a dog or cat growing up (Always/Usually)

80.08

 

1.26*

0.2857

% working full timec

66.39

 

0.48*

0.6204

% some college education or higher

80.91

 

-1.56

0.1235

% rating their own health as excellent or very good

67.22

 

0.22

0.8285

% Hispanic or Latino

1.70

 

-1.69

0.1847

% white

96.27

 

0.09

0.9329

% Annual household income > FPL for 4-person household d

94.19

 

2.27*

0.0489

% live in a house

87.97

 

-0.73

0.4721

% live in a city or near urban area

1.24

 

-1.57

0.2503

% with family history of mental illness

29.77

 

1.08

0.2810

% with autism in family member

13.16

 

1.19

0.2432

Mean (SD) PHQ8 score at follow-up

3.00 (4.46)

0.079

--

0.2211

Summary Statistics

Mean (SD)

Median (IQR)

Range

 

Cumulative Dog Exposure

91.65

(78.96)

87.49 (15.38-149.85)

0-316.28

 

Cumulative Cat Exposure

74.57 (102.23)

27.31

(0-119.16)

0-684.37

 
  1. aexcludes all outdoor housed dog and cats. b 241 is the total number of subjects who completed phone follow up. 19 were excluded from MH models due to MH diagnosis at baseline and 2 excluded due to missing baseline SCARED5. c Asked during COVID-19 pandemic so may not be representative of pre-pandemic conditions. d The lowest income category used was the cutoff for federal poverty level (FPL) for a 4 person household (0–26,200).The F-statistic and p-value relate to the association of dog exposure with the full range of income levels (not just dichotomous +/- FPL).
  2. *F-values presented for variables with more than two levels