Dog Ownership and Physical Activity: How Pandemic Restrictions Reshaped Exercise Habits
Could dog ownership serve as a buffer against pandemic-driven inactivityāor is it simply a symptom of broader psychological resilience?
A study of 414 Japanese office workers, including 124 dog owners, tracked physical activity patterns before, during, and after the pandemic using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire.
Researchers observed divergent trends between dog owners and non-owners. While both groups experienced pandemic-related declines in physical activity, dog owners uniquely regained prepandemic levels post-pandemic, whereas non-dog owners maintained stable activity levels throughout all time points.
Exercise self-efficacy emerged as a consistent predictor of physical activity across all phases of the study. Notably, dog owners maintained stable dog-walking routines during pandemic restrictions, potentially explaining their ability to recover lost activity levels.
However, the pre-pandemic association between dog ownership and higher exercise self-efficacy disappeared during and after the pandemic period.
The study's retrospective design and reliance on self-reported data introduce potential biases. Researchers caution that the findings reflect correlations rather than causal relationships. No independent expert commentary was included in the source.
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