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Owning a dog may be good for your heart

People who own dogs, either as a single individual or within a family, showed lower risk of cardiovascular death in a Swedish nationwide study.

“We show that dog ownership is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in single households and with a reduced risk of cardiovascular and all-cause death in the general population,” the researchers wrote. “Taken together, we believe our longitudinal population-wide design provides the most robust evidence so far of a link between dog ownership and health outcomes.”

The study included Swedish residents aged 40 to 80 years on January 1, 2001 (n=3,432,153; 48% men) and they defined dog ownership as time registered or having a partner registered as a dog owner in either of two dog registers in Sweden. They identified 13.1% of the cohort as dog owners at any time during the 12-year follow-up.

Classification as a dog owner was associated with lower risk of death in single-person houses (HR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.65-0.69) and families (HR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.87-0.91). Similar results were seen for CVD death (single-person HR = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.59-0.70; and family HR = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.81–0.90).

For single people, owning a dog ownership was inversely associated with cardiovascular outcomes (HR composite CVD = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.89–0.94).

“Ownership of hunting breed dogs was associated with lowest risk of CVD,” the researchers wrote. – by Katrina Altersitz

Here are 2017’s stories about pets and health, as covered by Healio.com:

Exposure to elements carried by dogs may reduce asthma symptoms

“This topic is important because the prevalence of asthma has increased in the past few decades, particularly in developed countries,” Po-Yang Tsou, MPH, MD, from the department of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told Healio Family Medicine. “Accumulating evidence suggests that the microbiome in patients with asthma is different from that of healthy people, but we don't know if the change in microbiome causes development or progression of asthma.” Read more.

Veterinarian in NYC contracts avian influenza from cat

A veterinarian in New York City was the first person in the United States to contract an avian influenza A virus from a cat, according to researchers. Read more.

Pet turtles cause multistate outbreak of Salmonella

According to the CDC, 37 people in 13 states were infected with the outbreak strain of S. Agbeni between March 1 and Aug. 3 this year, including 12 children aged 5 years or younger. At least 16 people have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported. Read more.

Fleas from two Arizona counties test positive for plague

Health officials said people living, working, camping, or visiting in areas with a risk of plague can minimize their chances of infection by not handling sick animals, preventing pets from roaming loose, removing fleas from pets routinely, using insect repellents, wearing rubber gloves and other protection when cleaning and skinning wild animals, not camping next to rodent burrows, not sleeping directly on the ground and by being aware that cats are highly susceptible to the disease. Read more.

Dermatologists can learn from veterinarians, AAD presenter reports

“Dermatologists, veterinarians and scientists can learn a lot from one another,” Jennifer Gardner, MD, FAAD, an assistant professor of dermatology at University of Washington in Seattle and a collaborating member at the UW Center for One Health Research, stated in an AAD news release. “When we work together and share our expertise, it can improve the health of humans and animals alike, as well as the health of the environment they share.” Read more.

One Health approach essential to controlling public health threats

“There have been cases where dogs have been sick and the veterinarians knew about it, but because physicians never heard about it, human cases were missed, leading to some fatalities,” Peter Rabinowitz, MD, MPH, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and director of the Center for One Health Research at the University of Washington, told Infectious Disease News. Read more.

Several states legally require hand sanitation stations at animal contact exhibits

“Proper handwashing is an effective way to prevent transmission of disease to persons at animal exhibits; however, outbreaks at animal contact exhibits continue to occur, in part because of a lack of handwashing stations,” Aila Hoss, JD, of CDC’s Public Health Law Program, and colleagues wrote in a recent MMWR. Read more.

Pets may have valuable role in mental health treatment

“The people we spoke to through the course of this study felt their pet played a range of positive roles such as helping them to manage stigma associated with their mental health by providing acceptance without judgement,” Helen Brooks, PhD, of University of Manchester, United Kingdom, said in a press release. Read more.

Disclosures: Mubanga reports no relevant financial relationships. See study for all authors’ disclosures.