Early contact with dogs linked to lower risk of childhood asthma – forskning.se

The researchers used information from nine different national registers, including two dog ownership records that have not previously been used for medical research. The results are published today in the international scientific journal JAMA Pediatrics. The aim of the study was to investigate whether children who had contact with animals early in life had more or less asthma than other children.

– Previous studies have shown that children who grow up on a farm is halved the risk of asthma. We wanted to examine how the risk was for children who grow up in families with dogs. Our results confirm previous studies in terms of children growing up on the farm, and we also saw that the children who grow up with dogs in the family had about 15 percent lower risk of asthma at school age. We took into account all known so-called confounding factors in our analyzes such as asthma in parents, geography and number of siblings, says Tove Fall, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Department of Medical Sciences at Uppsala University who led the study with researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Sweden has an important role in the research records because unlike many other countries use unique numbers for all public administrations. Register of population and health registers of the National Board keeps good quality and high coverage. Ownership Registration of dogs Board of Agriculture is mandatory since 2001, which typically occurs when the puppies are examined and id-marked face sales. The researchers used this information from the Board of Agriculture and also the Swedish Kennel Club registers were linked anonymously to the population and health data.

– This type of study can show the correlation between environmental factors and disease in large populations. They can not give answers to whether and how the animals actually protect children from asthma. We know that children who already have allergy to cat or dog should avoid these animals, but our results provide an indication that children who grow up with dogs have a decreased risk of asthma later in life. Due to the study design which basically includes the entire Swedish child population during the study period as possible the results generalize to other European countries with similar culture regarding dog ownership and agriculture, says Professor Catarina Almqvist Malmros at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, a senior author of the study and pediatrician at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital in Stockholm.

Publication: “Dog and farm animal exposure Reduce the risk of childhood asthma – a nationwide cohort study”. Tove Fall, Cecilia Lundholm, Anne K Örtqvist, Katja Fall, Fang Fang, Åke Hedhammar, Olle Fighter, Erik Ingelsson, and Catarina Almqvist. JAMA Pediatrics. In press.

Financial support for the study came from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in the Social and Medical Sciences (SIMSAM), Stockholm County Council (ALF), Management Research in Epidemiology (SFO epi) at Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, Brother Hjerpstedts Foundation and Tore Nilsson Foundation.

Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) is a national center for molecular biosciences, with a focus on research in health and environment. The center combines technical expertise and advanced instrument with a broad expertise in translational medicine and molecular biosciences.