Baseline characteristics of the study sample by dog ownership status (n=71)
| Baseline characteristics | Dog ownership status | ||
| Dog acquisition (n=17) | Lagged control (n=29) | Community control (n=25) | |
| Age (years) | 36.9 (10.6) | 38.0 (13.6) | 50.7 (18.4) |
| Gender (female %) | 100 | 75.9 | 80 |
| Physical activity | |||
| Bouts of 10+ min of walking/week* | 11.5 (7.6) | 8.3 (5.5) | 8.9 (7.9) |
| Minutes spent walking/week* | 303.2 (277.7) | 219.8 (192.4) | 251.6 (202.7) |
| Time spent sedentary (hours/day)* | 7.7 (2.7) | 7.8 (2.9) | 7.4 (3.5) |
| Resting systolic blood pressure† | 114.4 (11.6) | 112.6 (15.7) | 118.1 (20.1) |
| Resting diastolic blood pressure† | 79.9 (9.0) | 74.7 (8.3) | 75.9 (9.3) |
| Resting heart rate† | 73.4 (10.7) | 66.5 (11.9) | 70.3 (9.9) |
| VO2max‡ | 37.4 (1.6) | 43.6 (8.2) | 39.8 (6.6) |
| Alcohol consumption | |||
| 1 or more days/week | 70.6 | 55.2 | 56 |
| Less than once per week | 29.4 | 44.8 | 44 |
| Education§ | |||
| Trade certificate/diploma or less (%) | 47.1 | 17.2 | 12 |
| Bachelor’s or postgraduate degree (%) | 52.9 | 82.8 | 88 |
| Previous dog ownership (%) | 52.9 | 65.5 | 44 |
| Season of baseline data collection (% winter) | 58.8 | 86.2 | 92 |
Data are presented as mean (SD) unless indicated otherwise.
*Based on participant’s self-reported physical activity and sedentary behaviour patterns.
†Data available from n=68 (n=15 dog acquisition, n=29 lagged control, n=24 community control).
‡Based on submaximal step test. Data available from n=41 (n=10 dog acquisition, n=19 lagged control, n=12 community control).
§Highest level of education completed.