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 U.S. women over age 50 and generally healthy were less likely to die
of cardiovascular events like stroke if they had a cat or dog, the
researchers found.
After accounting for the increase in physical activity required of
dog owners, owning a cat instead of a dog was still tied to a lower
risk of death from stroke.
The researchers studied almost 4,000 adults age 50 and older without
major illnesses who participated in the National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in 1988 to 1994 and who
reported their pet ownership.
Participants also answered questions about physical activity, weight
and height, cigarette smoking and other health risk factors. More
than half were overweight or obese.
About 35 percent of people owned a pet, most often a dog. Pet owners
tended to be younger, more often were married, and more often were
white.
According to the National Death Index, as of 2006, 11 of every 1,000
non-pet owners had died of cardiovascular disease, compared to about
7 of every 1,000 pet owners.
Specifically for stroke, male pet owners were just as likely to have
died, but female pet owners were about 40 percent less likely to
have died of stroke.
Most of this association was driven by cat ownership, according to
results in High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Prevention.
“Anecdotally, we believe that walking a dog is good for heart,
reducing life pressure and blood pressure as well,” said senior
author Jian Zhang of the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at
Georgia Southern University in the U.S.
“I strongly believe that putative benefits of keeping a dog have not
yet fully translated into reality, and we found that pet owners did
not walk pets, certainly, dogs, more often than others,” Zhang said.
“This explains why owning a dog did not reduce CVD mortality among
dog owners.”
Cat owners may have a personality that protects their hearts, rather
than cats actually having a concrete effect on heart health, he
said.
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“We are short of overall assessment of the associations of companion
animals with human health, and our study should not be interpreted
to encourage more people to own pets, either dog or cat,” Zhang
said. “Pets are good, but have to be kept responsibly.”
“In my study, there was a tendency for pet owners to have a higher
risk of dying,” said Dr. Richard F. Gillum of Howard University
College of Medicine in Washington D.C., who was not part of the new
study but did study the same NHANES surveys.
Most findings show no association between pets and survival, he
said.
“Data from NHANES are really inadequate to settle the question,
since one can only determine there was a pet in the household, but
not the number of pets or whether the study participant was the
owner, cared for it or interacted with it,” Gillum said. “So we need
to wait for better studies before making any firm conclusions about
pets and survival among their owners.”
“Even if there were a reduction of death from stroke among women
with cats, of what importance is that in public health terms if they
are just as likely to die as other women, just from another cause,”
he said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/28TQY65 High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular
Prevention, online May 12, 2016.
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