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.

最近在瑞典进行的一项研究发现，中风或心脏病发后从医院回到家里，与那些享受不到狗狗舔脸撒娇的欢乐的人相比，养狗的人死亡的风险明显更低一些。

 

Uppsala University researchers used a major national health register to come up with a list of nearly 182,000 patients aged¹ 40 to 85 who'd suffered an acute heart attack between 2001 and 2012.

乌普萨拉大学的研究人员根据全国主要的健康登记册列出了一份近18.2万名患者的名单，他们的年龄在40岁至85岁之间，曾在2001年至2012年间有过急性心脏病发作的经历。

 

Similarly, they collected information on just over 150,000 patients the same age who'd had a stroke during that period.

同样的，他们还收集了逾15万名年龄相同且在那期间中风过的患者的信息。

 

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.

即使接受了最好的医疗护理，病人回家后其健康状况也可能会恶化。在心脏病发后的第二年，大约有3万名患者去世了。

 

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 odds² of survival in the wake of a hospital stay.

几年前，乌普萨拉大学的同一批研究人员发现，养狗的人通常心血管更健康。现在是时候研究一下这是否意味着能提高病人住院后的存活率。

 

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 mandatory³ dog registration⁴ in 2001, the researchers used this measure as a proxy⁵ for identifying the dog owners in their sample.

在他们为这项新研究收集的两组病人记录中，大约每20个人中就有一个人目前有养狗的记录。2001年瑞典强制实行养狗登记制，研究人员通过这一方法来确定样本中养狗的人。

 

By comparing the mortality rates between the dog owners and the rest of the patient sample, the team found not only were our canine⁶ companions correlated with better health, that improvement was a real life saver.

通过比较样本中养狗之人和其他病人的死亡率，该研究团队发现，病人更好的健康状况不仅与有狗狗的陪伴相关，而且健康状况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.

那些只与狗狗生活在一起的人在心脏病发之后，其死亡的风险降低了整整三分之一。即使有伴侣或孩子在家里陪着，再加上一条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.

中风患者的结果(与心脏病患者的结果)相似;那些与狗狗单独生活的人，其死亡率降低了27%，而那些除了伴侣或孩子之外还有狗狗陪伴的人，其存活率提高了12%。

点击收听单词发音