Minority Predoctoral Fellowship Program

描述(由申请人提供)：人与动物相互作用领域的研究人员报告了大量轶事证据，表明宠物饲养与改善人类健康有关。基于健全科学的研究数量很少，结果也是模棱两可的。根据研究人员的说法，这些不一致是测量的变量和使用的方法造成的。这项研究建议使用临床测量而不是自我报告来模拟宠物饲养和健康(以心血管风险因素、心理健康、身体功能和体力活动衡量)之间的关系，同时调整潜在的混杂变量。参与者是从居住在宾夕法尼亚州孟菲斯、田纳西州和匹兹堡附近的符合联邦医疗保险资格的70-79岁成年人中随机抽取的，白人(n=1794)和全黑人(n=1281)。样本中非洲裔美国人的比例很大(41.6%)，这也为调查宠物对人类健康影响方面可能存在的种族差异提供了机会。数据将从健康老龄化和身体成分(健康ABC)研究中提取。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Researchers in the field of human-animal interactions have reported an abundance of anecdotal evidence relating pet ownership to improved human health. The number of studies based on sound science are few and the results are ambiguous. According to researchers, these inconsistencies are a result of the variables measured and the methods used. This research proposes to use clinical measures rather than self-reports to model the relationship between pet ownership and health (measured as cardiovascular risk factors, mental health, physical function and physical activity), while adjusting for potential confounding variables. Participants were recruited from a random sample of White (n=1794) and all Black (n=1281) Medicare eligible adults aged 70-79 living in the Memphis, TN and Pittsburgh, PA vicinities. The large percentage of African Americans (41.6 percent) in the sample affords the opportunity to also investigate possible racial differences with respect to the impact of pets on human health. Data will be extracted from the Health Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study.