Pet ownership and parent-reported mental health in pediatric transplantation. A cross-sectional study from the European reference network Transplantchild. The pink study.

Introduction: As the number of transplants and survival rates increase, concerns regarding the mental health of transplanted children and their correlated factors are growing. Objectives: To assess the emotional, behavioral, and physical functioning of children who underwent various types of transplants, exploring its association with pet ownership. Methods: Pediatric transplant centers were contacted through the European Network Results: A total of 418 participants from nine European centers were included. The mean age of the children was 11.09 ± 4.17 years. Of these, 84% had undergone solid-organ transplantation and 16% had undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; 43% of the children lived with dogs and/or cats. High rates of abnormal scores were observed across all the SDQ subscales, with peer problems being the most prevalent (29.8%). Solid-organ transplant recipients exhibited higher conduct-problem scores ( Conclusions: Transplanted children are at increased risk of emotional and behavioral difficulties. Pet ownership was associated with higher prosocial behavior and fewer peer problems in adolescents, supporting a potential beneficial role of companion animals in the psychosocial well-being of pediatric transplant recipients.