I have grown up having a dog or two in my family my entire life, and I always thought that there were many positives that come along with owning a dog. I always believed that having a dog made you happier, taught you responsibilities, and helped you be more active, but when I heard that owning a dog could prevent young children from getting asthma I was shocked! According to a recent study, children who spent their youngest childhood years with a dog in their house were less likely to develop asthma. I believe this new finding is wonderful and just adds to the list of positive things that owning a dogs adds to one’s life!
Fighting asthma one nap at a time!
“Earlier studies have shown that growing up on a farm reduces a child’s risk of asthma to about half. We wanted to see if this relationship also was true for children growing up with dogs in their homes.” This was said by the author of the study, Dr. Tove Fall, who explained the reasoning for doing the study. They conducted a correlational study, observing the medical records of all Swedish children who were born from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2010. They also took a look at the families’ medical histories, pet/farm ownership in the first year of life, and other potential factors that could lead to asthma. The team observed the rates of asthma among preschoolers and school kids ages 1 to 6. Results yielded that of the 1,011,051 children born during the study time period, 14.2% of the preschoolers were exposed to dogs and 8.2% of the school-aged children were exposed to dogs. The results of the study found that exposure to dogs and farm animals during the first year of life reduces the risk of asthma in children at age 6 by 15% compared to those who were not exposed to dogs. That is good to hear, but they also found from the study that dog ownership was associated with a higher risk of pneumonia and other lower respiratory tract diseases among pre-school children.
I think this study was pretty well conducted because they had a large sample size and had access to nearly every medical file and background information on the kids, nearly eliminating confounding third variables. Of course there is always a small percent of chance involved. This is a correlational study though, so they did not necessarily found out why dogs had these effects on kids and asthma, they just know that there is something going on. This study is interesting to me because I love dogs and I will always have one so it is good to know how owning one could possibly effect your future family. I think they should continue to do studies on this topic because asthma is fairly common, and owning dogs is even more common, therefore it would be interesting to see what other effects a dog can have on a young child. In the end, you dog can help prevent asthma, but there may also be some adverse findings as well such as the risk of pneumonia. I think dogs are highly beneficial and that every family should have one because the positives, including protecting against asthma, hugely out weight the negatives!
Dogs will always be man’s best friend!
I’ve heard throughout my life that there are benefits and hindrances that come from owning a pet. I did not realize a medical condition like asthma could be prevented by having a dog though, and I find that very interesting. Obviously, owning a pet can effect your life in a great way, but pets can also carry diseases and fleas, which can pose a threat to their human owners. If an owner allows their pet to sleep in their bed, this can spread many germs. “The risk of contracting something is rare,” but no one wants to get the plague from your cat or meningitis from kissing your dog (Raymond). The risk is low, but the hazard is somewhat high. This was seen with an older woman in Britain, and a young boy in Arizona. In order to make the claim that sleeping with your pets can be detrimental to ones health, it would be necessary to draw from a large sample, not just two cases, and to compare within the sample size. This can be with pet owners, pet owners who sleep with their pets in their bed, and people who do not own animals. There would also have to be specific aspects of their health inspected to tell how their overall health is.
Here is the link to the article stating that sleeping with pets can be costly: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/41235440/ns/health-pet_health/t/out-sack-cat-sleeping-pets-carries-disease-risk/#.Vjt3CYSpr0s
This article does not have enough solid statistics to state their claim with 100% certainty. But, this idea could effect your conclusion on if the pros outweigh the cons on owning a pet. Is preventing asthma greater than the risk of getting sick from your pet?
This blog caught my eye right away because I am a HUGE dog person. I thought this was a very interesting post because not only have I not heard of this before but also because it can actually be very beneficial to those who suffer from asthma and also for those who want to prevent asthma. I was curious as to what dogs carry that helps prevent asthma and according to BBC news online, they say that it’s from dog dander, which I find pretty interesting . A question that popped up in my head while I was reading your blog was that does it depened on what breed your dog is? I geuss we wont know until more study’s are conducted.
It sounds like a strange idea that owning a dog could lead to asthma prevention, but it is certainly the perfect topic to look into for this class! I too wonder about the mechanism that could allow this to occur, so an experiment for further research is incredibly necessary. Obviously having a dog introduces new bacteria and other such things into the air of a person’s home and I wonder if that could somehow improve a child’s breathing. However, then the issue arises in a case of a farm animal and an open-air setting. An experiment would need to be tightly controlled looking into medical history and other variables that this study mentioned as well as the type of animal and the setting. Even though it seems like an outrageous idea, maybe a substantial finding will come from this correlation!
I have asthma and have never had a dog, so I will definitely be sending the link to your blog post to my father to make him feel bad. Jokes aside, I thought the studies done were pretty well conducted and interesting, however there are definitely third variables to account for, as well as the fact that correlation does not equal causation. But definitely an interesting topic and a really good way to try and make my dad feel bad about not letting me get a dog.
I find it hard to believe that the ownership of dogs or farm animals has a direct effect on whether a child has asthma because contact between an infant and a cow or even a dog still is seldom. There is no mechanism proposed which shows at best a correlation and that is all. I feel like there is a lack of details in the study, for example was the health of the parents taken into consideration? Do the parents smoke? Perhaps people who have pets and animals around also must take part in activities at a young age that could cause asthma or its hereditary starting with ancestors who were raised on a farm… The possibilities could really be anything based off of how vague this study is.
Hi! This was a really interesting article. I too am a dog lover, but my dog is hypoallergenic because my family has terrible allergies. You say that the correlational study nearly eliminates confounding variables, but there are some “z” variables that may be the cause of this correlation, such as different types of breeds helping or not helping the asthma. The study would be more effective if it was an experimental study, which would be able to rule out any confounding variables. Does the study consider hypoallergenic dogs, and if they also help with asthma? There might be a change in data if the researchers added in hypoallergenic dogs to the study, and also kept the control group, to make the most effective study. Here are the five best dog breeds I found that help the most with asthma. Great article!
-Claire
I found your blog really interesting considering the fact that there are so many people who own dogs as well as people that suffer from asthma. The way this observational study was conducted clearly has created several hypothesis towards what really causes dogs to stop asthma in certain people. But I do consider that there are many other variables that affected this study. In my case, I’ve always had asthma and when my mom decided to buy a dog, she heard a rumor that chihuahuas cured asthma, and this is one of the reasons she bough her. I started researching recently and I found that this rumor is mostly a myth which is not scientifically true or proven. Here is the article about it. http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/asthma.asp