SynthesisSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2022
Pet ownership, loneliness, and social isolation: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Interventions against loneliness and social isolation in older adults- a systematic review.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- ASSeTS: a systematic review and development of the World Health Organization's classification system for social isolation and loneliness interventions.Population health metrics · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence and correlates of loneliness and social isolation in the oldest old: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Pooled it
- Pet's influence on humans' daily physical activity and mental health: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Pet Nutrition and the Unmeasured Owner Outcome: A Bidirectional Framework for Relational Value in Human-Animal Relationships.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- An Idiographic, Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Adolescent-Dog Relationships in the Context of Social Anxiety.Child & youth care forum · 2026Article
- Research on the Purchase Behavior of Owner-Pet Matching Outfits Based on the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Behavioral Predictors of Adolescent Anxiety During Therapy Dog Interactions Within an Experimental Setting.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The protective role of companion animal ownership in cognitive aging: current status of the literature.GeroScience · 2026Review
- Contact with dogs is associated with improved survival in cancer patients.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Cross-species conversations: the development of the AURAL-Pet coding system to capture how people talk to pets in daily life.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Measuring the accessibility of veterinary care for companion animals in England and Wales.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2026Article
- Wealth, health, cats and Toxoplasma gondii: An ecological correlational study of subjective well-being across 93 countries.PloS one · 2026Article
- Social and biological pathways linking relationships with companion animals to human well-being.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Owner-Directed Canine Aggression in Thailand: Triggers, Associated Factors and Clinical Interventions.Veterinary medicine international · 2026Article
- Companion animals support human wellbeing and health: evolutionary, behavioral and physiological contexts.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- "My Little Son, My Everything": Comparative Caregiving and Emotional Bonds in Dog and Child Parenting.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Pet ownership and risk of depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of general psychiatry · 2025Article
- Impact of changes in leisure activities on incident disability among older adults: a nationwide cohort study.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- 'he's not just a dog… he's something bigger… my family.' A Qualitative Study on Dog Ownership and Emotional Well-Being.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeSeveral publications explored a relationship between pet ownership and lower levels of loneliness and social isolation. However, to the best of our knowledge, no systematic review has yet synthesized the evidence on these associations. Thus, this systematic review aims to evaluate the findings regarding the relations between pet ownership, loneliness, and social isolation.
methodsPubMed, CINAHL, and PsycInfo were searched in January 2022. Observational studies relying on appropriate instruments to assess the exposure and the outcome variables were included. Two reviewers independently executed study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment.
resultsn = 24 studies were included. Among adult samples, the studies examining the relationship between pet ownership and social isolation found that owning a pet was associated with lower levels of social isolation. Concerning loneliness, studies that were conducted after the outbreak of COVID-19 mostly showed that pet ownership can contribute to lower levels of loneliness, but did not reveal an overall significant association until then. In turn, the studies that examined child and adolescent samples suggest that pet ownership was related to reduced loneliness before COVID-19. Furthermore, most of the studies did not reveal any differences between dogs, cats, and other kinds of pets regarding their relationship to loneliness and social isolation.
conclusionAll in all, only a part of the studies detected a significant association between pet ownership, loneliness and social isolation. However, the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to strengthen this relationship, so that future research is required to assess the longevity of this potential effect.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.