Table 2.

At the extraction stage, the following information was used for evaluation of research articles that examined the relationship between pet ownership and mental health.

Information Extracted from Articles
Study purpose
Type of research/Study design
Description of methods
Sample size
Demographics of sample
Type of pet (dog, cat, both)
How mental health diagnosis was obtained (self-report, scale, etc.)
Outcome variables
Mediating and moderating variables
Data analysis type
Main study findings
Type of impact on mental health (positive, mixed, none, negative)