養狗能降低病人的死亡概率大綱
A recent study conducted in Sweden found the risk of death for dog owners returning home from hospital after a stroke or heart attack was significantly lower than those who didn't come home to a face-licking ball of happiness.
最近在瑞典進行的一項研究發現，中風或心臟病發後從醫院回到家裏，與那些享受不到狗狗舔臉撒嬌的歡樂的人相比，養狗的人死亡的風險明顯更低一些。Uppsala University researchers used a major national health register to come up with a list of nearly 182,000 patients aged 40 to 85 who'd suffered an acute heart attack between 2001 and 2012.
烏普薩拉大學的研究人員根據全國主要的健康登記冊列出了一份近18.2萬名患者的名單，他們的年齡在40歲至85歲之間，曾在2001年至2012年間有過急性心臟病發作的經歷。Similarly, they collected information on just over 150,000 patients the same age who'd had a stroke during that period.
同樣的，他們還收集了逾15萬名年齡相同且在那期間中風過的患者的信息。
Even following the best medical care, patient health can take a turn for the worse after returning home. In the year following their heart attack, roughly 30,000 of the patients had passed away.
即使接受了最好的醫療護理，病人回家後其健康狀況也可能會惡化。在心臟病發後的第二年，大約有3萬名患者去世了。
Several years ago, the same Uppsala researchers found those who owned dogs generally had better cardiovascular health. Now it was time to see if that translated into improved odds of survival in the wake of a hospital stay.
幾年前，烏普薩拉大學的同一批研究人員發現，養狗的人通常心血管更健康。現在是時候研究一下這是否意味着能提高病人住院後的存活率。Across the two groups of patient records they gathered for this new study, roughly one in twenty people had current records of dog ownership - as Sweden instated mandatory dog registration in 2001, the researchers used this measure as a proxy for identifying the dog owners in their sample.
在他們爲這項新研究收集的兩組病人記錄中，大約每20個人中就有一個人目前有養狗的記錄。2001年瑞典強制實行養狗登記制，研究人員通過這一方法來確定樣本中養狗的人。By comparing the mortality rates between the dog owners and the rest of the patient sample, the team found not only were our canine companions correlated with better health, that improvement was a real life saver.
通過比較樣本中養狗之人和其他病人的死亡率，該研究團隊發現，病人更好的健康狀況不僅與有狗狗的陪伴相關，而且健康狀況的改善真的能挽救生命。For those who lived alone with their pup, the risk of dying in the wake of a heart attack was a full third lower. Even if there was a partner or a child waiting at home, adding a dog to the mix improved odds by around 15 percent.
那些只與狗狗生活在一起的人在心臟病發之後，其死亡的風險降低了整整三分之一。即使有伴侶或孩子在家裏陪着，再加上一條狗也能使病人的存活率提高15%。The results were similar for those who'd had a stroke; those living alone with a dog saw a 27 percent drop, while those with a dog in addition to a partner or child were 12 percent better off.
中風患者的結果（與心臟病患者的結果）相似；那些與狗狗單獨生活的人，其死亡率降低了27%，而那些除了伴侶或孩子之外還有狗狗陪伴的人，其存活率提高了12%。
