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. 2012;5(6):833-44.
doi: 10.1159/000345963. Epub 2012 Dec 8.

Is childhood obesity influenced by dog ownership? No cross-sectional or longitudinal evidence

Carri Westgarth  1 , Jon Heron, Andrew R Ness, Peter Bundred, Rosalind M Gaskell, Karen Coyne, Alexander J German, Sandra McCune, Susan Dawson
Affiliations

Is childhood obesity influenced by dog ownership? No cross-sectional or longitudinal evidence

Carri Westgarth et al. Obes Facts. 2012.

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether dog ownership is associated with lower risk of childhood obesity.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of 7,759 children at age 7 years in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in the UK. In addition, longitudinal analyses were conducted between age 7 and 9 years. BMI at age 7 and 9 years was calculated from clinic-measured weight and height and standardised in reference to 1990 UK data. Dog ownership data were collected by carer questionnaire at various time points.

Results: After adjustment for confounding factors associated with dog ownership or obesity, there was no evidence of an association between obesity and dog ownership at 7 years OR = 1.18, 95% confidence interval = 0.88-1.59, p = 0.27), or dog ownership history. There was also no evidence for an effect of dog ownership on BMI change between 7 and 9 years, nor acquisition of a dog on the change in weight status of obese children between 7 and 9 years.

Conclusion: This study provides no evidence for a protective effect of dog ownership on the development of childhood obesity. Further investigation is required to determine the impact of dog ownership on physical activity in overweight and obese children.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare that i) CW, SD, RG, PB, AG, and KC have institutional support via a grant from WALTHAM® and Mars Petcare UK for the submitted work; CW's position was funded through this work; ii) the position of AG at the institution is funded by Royal Canin, a subsidiary of Mars Petcare UK and he has also received other research grants from Mars Petcare UK iii) SMcC is an employee (Research Manager) of WALTHAM®, a division of Mars Inc; iv) AN and JH received no institutional or personal funding for this work; v) no spouses, partners, or children have financial relationships that may be relevant to the submitted work; and vi) no authors have non-financial interests that may be relevant to the submitted work. The funding sources had input during study design, interpretation of results and writing of the manuscript but did not influence study findings.. All researchers except SM are independent of the main funding body.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Effect of dog acquisition at age 7 years stratified into obese and not obese. a Of those children who were obese and did not own a dog at age 7 years (n = 293), 12 children had acquired a dog by age 8 years; all 12 were still obese by age 9 years, whereas 13% of the rest of the group were now not obese (Fisher's exact p = 0.38). Mean BMI SDS increase between 7 and 9 years was 0.04 for those who did not get a dog at age 8 years and 0.10 for those who did get a dog (t-test p = 0.63). There was also no evidence for differences regarding the larger subset (n = 669) of overweight children (data not shown). b A subset of children were not obese and did not own a dog at age 7 years (n = 3,821). Of the 132 children who now owned a dog at age 8 years, 7 (5%) were obese by age 9 years, compared to 6% of the rest of the group (p = 0.83). A smaller cohort of children were not overweight at age 7 years, and did not own a dog (n = 3,445). Of the 117 children who had acquired a dog by age 8 years, 14 (12%) were now classed as overweight, compared to 11% of those remaining without a dog (p = 0.76).
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