Study: No clear association between pet ownership and brain, heart health

Key takeaways:

• Prior research found pet ownership may decrease dementia and cardiovascular risks.
• A new study found no clear link, despite the hypothesis that activity and smoking behaviors differ in pet vs. non-pet owners.

ORLANDO, Fla. — An analysis of a large cohort of individuals enrolled in a continuous, multinational survey found no clear associations between brain and heart health and pet ownership, according to a poster.

“Recent studies have suggested that pet ownership is associated with decreased risk of development of dementia and cardiovascular events,” Kelly L. Sloane, MD, associate professor of neurology and physical medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, said at the American Neurological Association annual meeting. “We wanted to look in a nationally representative sample.”

Sloane and colleagues evaluated associations of pet ownership with brain and heart health by examining the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) cardiovascular health metrics: BMI, blood pressure, diet, blood glucose, lipids, sleep, smoking status and physical activity level.

Their study included more than 24,000 individuals aged 20 years or older (dog owners, n = 5,730; other pet owners, n = 2,965; dog and other pet owners, n = 2,215; non-pet owners, n = 13,755) from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The primary outcome was the difference in LE8 metrics between pet and non-pet owners, with scores for each metric ranging from 0 to 100.

The scores were divided into quartiles and comparisons were made between the top and remaining three quartiles, with subsequent analyses examining pet ownership association and LE8 score quartiles.

According to the results, non-pet owners were more likely than pet owners to have lower median LE8 composite scores and scores in the upper quartile.

The researchers also found that while pet ownership was associated with higher overall LE8 scores, it did not carry significant associations with individual LE8 metrics.

Sloane and colleagues concluded that pet ownership might contribute to overall brain and cardiovascular health, without influence on individual heart-related factors.

“We found in each individual metric, there was no difference between pet owners and non-pet owners,” Sloane noted. “Surprising, because we thought there would be a difference, specifically in physical activity and smoking because that has been shown previously.”