Living with dogs from an early age reduces the risk of having adult asthma. The dear fido is therefore a precious ally for children's health. The new confirmation comes from a study conducted by the University of Uppsala
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
Cohabit from an early age with dogs reduces the risk of having asthma da large. Dear Fido is therefore a precious ally for children's health. The new confirmation comes from a study conducted byUppsala University.
Swedish scientists used national registries to study the association between the initiation of contact with dogs from early life to the development of asthma.
Topic already studied previously but without reaching results satisfactory. This time, however, the research showed that children raised with dogs had one 15 percent risk reduction compared to children without dogs.
A total of over a million children were included in the study, linking together nine different national data sources. Other previous studies had shown that whoever grows into one farm halves the risk of having adult asthma.
“We wanted to see if this relationship was also true for children who grow up with dogs in their homes. Our results have confirmed the effect and we also saw that children who grew up with dogs had a 15 percent lower risk than children without dogs "he explains Tove Fall, professor of epidemiology at Uppsala University
Having a large dataset available, doctors were able to take into account other factors such as asthma in parents, area of residence and socio-economic status.
In Sweden, each person carries a unique personal identity number. Every specialist visit and every prescription made are recorded in national databases, accessible to researchers.
"This type of epidemiological study looks for associations in large populations, but does not provide answers on whether and how animals could protect children from developing asthma," says the senior author. Catarina Almqvist Malmros. "We know that children with cat or dog allergy should avoid them, but our results also indicate that children growing up with dogs reduced the risk of asthma."
On the other hand it had already been shown that children living with animals are less at risk of infections e allergies.
The results were published by JAMA Pediatrics.
Francesca Mancuso
READ also:
DOGS AND CATS: CHILDREN LIVING WITH PETS HAVE LESS INFECTIONS AND ARE HEALTHIER
HOW THE DOG IMPROVES LIFE: 10 REASONS NOT TO LESS IT ANY MORE
HOW PETS (NOT JUST DOGS) CAN HELP CHILDREN WITH AUTISM
DOGS AND CATS REDUCE THE RISK OF CONTRACTING ALLERGIES IN CHILDREN
