The Australian NATIONAL PEOPLE & PETS SURVEY 1994 (N = 1011) showed that dog and cat owners make fewer doctor visits and appear to have better health than non-pet owners. It follows that the presence of pets in a majority of Australian households entails savings in health expenditure. This paper provides the first preliminary estimates of these savings. Eight per cent of GDP, over $30 billion, is spent on health care, of which 68% is government expenditure and 32% private. Our calculations indicate that the presence of pets could save between $790 million and $1.5 billion, annually, depending on whether it is assumed that only the main carers of pets enjoy health benefits, or whether other family members are assumed to benefit also. The paper outlines future research requirements which would enable more precise estimates of savings to be calculated.
In 1992 the Baker Medical Research Institute found that pet owners in its clinic population had lower levels of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and that this was not explicable on the basis of cigarette smoking, diet, body mass index or socio-economic profile or other variables which normally increase risk. (Anderson, Reid & Jennings, 1992). These findings are now being further investigated through the Institute's cardiovascular disease risk clinic.
Australian and American research has also shown that dog and cat owners go to the doctor less often (Headey, 1995; Serpell, 1990a, 1990b). Furthermore, there is strong evidence that the relationship between pet ownership and better health may be causal and not merely correlational; that is, people who acquire a dog or cat subsequently enjoy improved health, perhaps because they are less likely to be lonely and more likely to take exercise (Serpell, 1990a, 1990b).
The Petcare Information & Advisory Service agreed that this last finding indicated that pet ownership may have a beneficial impact on community health costs and that this impact ought to be investigated.
To do so it was decided to combine a number of social and economic research methodologies to explore this possibility further.