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 aged 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 odds 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 mandatory dog registration in 2001, the researchers used this measure as a proxy 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 canine 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%。