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. 2024 Jan 31;19(1):e0296922.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296922. eCollection 2024.

Timing and duration of dog walking and dog owner's chronotype in relation to incident depression risk among middle to older-aged female nurses

Magdalena Żebrowska  1 , Susanne Strohmaier  1 , Carri Westgarth  2 , Curtis Huttenhower  3 , Heather A Eliassen  4   5   6 , Shahab Haghayegh  4 , Tianyi Huang  4 , Francine Laden  4   5   7 , Jaime Hart  4   7 , Bernard Rosner  3   4 , Ichiro Kawachi  4 , Jorge E Chavarro  4   5   6 , Olivia I Okereke  4   5   8 , Eva S Schernhammer  1   4   5
Affiliations

Timing and duration of dog walking and dog owner's chronotype in relation to incident depression risk among middle to older-aged female nurses

Magdalena Żebrowska et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: We examined associations between dog ownership, morning dog walking and its timing and duration, and depression risk in female nurses, exploring effect modification by chronotype. We hypothesized that dog ownership and morning walking with the dog are associated with lower odds of depression, and that the latter is particularly beneficial for evening chronotypes by helping them to synchronize their biological clock with the solar system.

Methods: 26,169 depression-free US women aged 53-72 from the Nurses' Health Study 2 (NHS2) were prospectively followed from 2017-2019. We used age- and multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) for depression according to dog ownership, and morning dog walking, duration, and timing.

Results: Overall, there was no association between owning a dog (ORvs_no_pets = 1.12, 95%CI = 0.91-1.37), morning dog walking (ORvs_not = 0.87, 95%CI = 0.64-1.18), or the duration (OR>30min vs. ≤15mins = 0.68, 95%CI = 0.35-1.29) or timing of morning dog walks (ORafter9am vs. before7am = 1.06, 95%CI = 0.54-2.05) and depression. Chronotype of dog owners appeared to modify these associations. Compared to women of the same chronotype but without pets, dog owners with evening chronotypes had a significantly increased odds of depression (OR = 1.60, 95%CI = 1.12-2.29), whereas morning chronotypes did not (OR = 0.94, 95%CI = 0.71-1.23). Further, our data suggested that evening chronotypes benefited more from walking their dog themselves in the morning (OR = 0.75, 95%CI = 0.46-1.23, Pintx = 0.064;) than morning chronotypes.

Conclusions: Overall, dog ownership was not associated with depression risk though it was increased among evening chronotypes. Walking their dog in the morning might help evening chronotypes to lower their odds of depression, though more data are needed to confirm this finding.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Study flow diagram illustrating the NHS2 study cohort exclusions at baseline in 2017.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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