Beck details therapeutic effects of pet ownership
Pets have long been popular in American households: 58% had them in 1996, up from 52% in 1988, most frequently in families with children aged 6-14. Pets have long been used in advertisements with children to symbolize beneficial effects. But not until 1987 were the health benefits of pets recognized.
As presented by Dr. Alan M. Beck at the Fourteenth National STS Meeting in Baltimore on 5 March, this recognition came from a 1980 study of the survival of heart attack patients, which showed a higher survival rate among animal owners. This is significant, said Beck, who directs the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University, to the point that animal owners now qualify for the same discount on life insurance as nonsmokers.
In his talk, titled "Companion Animals and Their Companions: Sharing a Strategy for Survival," Beck listed several activities found to be beneficial to health: reducing loneliness, stimulating talk, encouraging touch and care, being the object of attention, stimulating exercise, and encouraging laughter and social contact. Pet animals, he noted, do all these. People walk more with dogs than even with babies, he observed, and interacting with animals is the only "approved" caring activity for boys.
Since the heart attack survival study, other therapeutic effects of interaction with pets have been discovered, most prominently a reduction in blood pressure. Isolated data have shown autistic people able to communicate with and remember dogs. Because of the therapeutic effect on their residents, many nursing homes have instituted animal visitation programs.
Although no comparable research has been done on the effect of stuffed animals, as opposed to live pets, Beck felt that there is a genetic predisposition to relating to real animals. In support of this, he stated that more people visit zoos than attend sporting events. And there are therapeutic effects for the animals too: stroking dogs and horses is found to reduce their pulse.
Arranging for Dr. Beck to speak and introducing him was a special moment of delight for Education Assembly Chair Irma Jarcho, because of her lifetime association with Beck. He began his career teaching science at The New Lincoln School in New York City, when she headed the department there, and she has been following his career with interest and friendship ever since.
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