Dogs are Good for Your Heart Health: Study
People who have dogs are more likely to achieve the recommended level of behavioral cardiovascular health metrics such as physical activity and diet than non-owners of dogs, according to a new study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes.
Pet owners, especially people who have dogs, are more likely to get regular exercise, eat a healthier diet and have better sugar levels in their blood. Image credit: Helena Sushitskaya.
“Having a dog may prompt owners to go out, move around and play with their dog regularly,” said Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, chair of the Division of Preventive Cardiology at Mayo Clinic and corresponding authors of the study.
“Owning a dog also has been linked to better mental health in other studies and less perception of social isolation — both risk factors for heart attacks.”
Dr. Lopez-Jimenez’s team analyzed data from the Kardiovize Brno 2030 project, which recruited a random sample of residents of the city of Brno, Czech Republic.
The researchers looked at 1,769 subjects (aged from 25 to 64 years; 44.3% males) with no history of heart disease and scored them based on seven ideal health behaviors and factors, as outlined by the American Heart Association: body mass index, diet, physical activity, smoking status, blood pressure, blood glucose and total cholesterol.
They compared the cardiovascular health scores of pet owners overall to those who did not own pets.
Then they compared dog owners to other pet owners and those who did not own pets.
“In general, people who owned any pet were more likely to report more physical activity, better diet and blood sugar at ideal level,” said study first author Dr. Andrea Maugeri, a researcher with the International Clinical Research Center at St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno, Czech Republic, and the University of Catania, Italy.
“The greatest benefits from having a pet were for those who owned a dog, independent of their age, sex and education level.”
“The higher smoking rates among dog owners attenuated the association between dog ownership and cardiovascular health.”
“The findings support the idea that people could adopt, rescue or purchase a pet as a potential strategy to improve their cardiovascular health as long as pet ownership led them to a more physically active lifestyle,” the scientist added.
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Andrea Maugeri et al. 2019. Dog Ownership and Cardiovascular Health: Results from the Kardiovize 2030 Project. Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes 3 (3): 268-275; doi: 10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2019.07.007