Table 1.
Baseline socio-demographic characteristics of non-owners at baseline by dog ownership status at one year follow-up
| Characteristic | % New dog owners Mean (SD) (n = 92) | % Continuing non-owners Mean (SD) (n = 681) | p value |
| Gender (female) | 62.0 | 57.3 | 0.395 |
| Mean age (years) | 39.1 (SD 9.59) | 41.68 (SD 12.48) | 0.021 |
| Born in Australia | 59.3 | 54.1 | 0.342 |
| Marital status | |||
| Married/defacto | 75.0 | 84.4 | 0.037 |
| Separated/divorced/widowed | 15.2 | 7.7 | |
| Single | 9.8 | 8.0 | |
| Education | |||
| Secondary or less | 38.5 | 38.5 | 0.073 |
| Trade/apprentice/certificate | 45.1 | 35.2 | |
| Bachelor or higher | 16.5 | 26.3 | |
| Work status | |||
| Work | 87.0 | 77.2 | 0.036 |
| No work | 12.0 | 15.2 | |
| Retired | 1.1 | 7.7 | |
| Number of hours worked1 | |||
| ≤ Half time | 15.3 (16.5) | 10.2 (13.0) | 0.005 |
| >Half time ≤ 38 hrs/week | 23.5 (25.3) | 22.8 (29.2) | (0.260) |
| >38 hrs/week ≤ 60 hrs/week | 52.9 (57.0) | 40.6 (51.9) | |
| >60 hrs/week | 1.2 (1.3) | 4.6 (5.8) | |
| Not in workforce | 7.1 | 21.8 | |
| Occupation1 | |||
| Management/administration | 20.7 (22.2) | 12.8 (16.3) | 0.002 |
| Professional | 26.4 (28.4) | 30.6 (38.8) | (0.111) |
| Blue collar | 23.0 (24.7) | 13.4 (17.0) | |
| Clerical/sales/service/other | 23.0 (24.7) | 21.9 (27.8) | |
| Not in workforce | 6.9 | 21.3 | |
| Household income | |||
| <$49, 999 | 23.8 | 28.1 | 0.859 |
| $50–69,999 | 27.4 | 25.3 | |
| $70–89,999 | 22.6 | 22.4 | |
| $90,000+ | 26.2 | 24.1 | |
| Children living at home <18 years | 61.1 | 48.4 | 0.024 |
| Mean age of children living at home | 7.24 (SD 4.20) | 6.43 (SD 4.54) | 0.219 |
| <18 years | |||
| Type of residence | |||
| Separate house | 81.5 | 80.2 | 0.652 |
| Semi-attached | 8.7 | 9.6 | |
| Flat/unit | 7.6 | 9.3 | |
| Other | 2.2 | 0.9 |
1 Results presented within brackets for number of hours worked and occupation excludes those not in the workforce from the sample