Association between Responsible Pet Ownership and Glycemic Control in Youths with Type 1 Diabetes
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Quantitative Health SciencesDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2016-04-22Keywords
Diabetes mellitusPets and companion animals
HbA1c
Pediatrics
Medical education
Adolescents
Insulin
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms
Endocrine System Diseases
Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism
Health Services Administration
Pediatrics
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Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) a chronic characterized by an absolute insulin deficiency requires conscientious patient self-management to maintain glucose control within a normal range. Family cohesion and adaptability, positive coping strategies, social support and adequate self-regulatory behavior are found to favorably influence glycemic control. Our hypothesis was that the responsible care of a companion animal is associated with these positive attributes and correlated with the successful management of a chronic illness such as type 1 diabetes. We recruited 223 youths between 9 and 19 years of age from the Pediatric Diabetes clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, reviewed the status of their glycemic control (using three consecutive A1c values) and asked them questions about the presence of a pet at home, and their level of involvement with its care. Multivariate analyses show that children who care actively for one or more pets at home are 2.5 times more likely to have control over their glycemic levels than children who do not care for a pet, adjusting for duration of disease, socio-economic status, age and self-management [1.1 to 5.8], pWald = 0.032. A separate model involving the care of a pet dog only yielded comparable results (ORa = 2.6 [1.1 to 5.9], pWald = 0.023).Source
PLoS One. 2016 Apr 22;11(4):e0152332. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152332. eCollection 2016. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0152332Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/40108PubMed ID
27104736Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedDistribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1371/journal.pone.0152332
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/