Dogs boost babies' immunity
Katy Morton
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Children growing up in homes that have dogs as pets experience fewer respiratory infections and are healthier, according to a new study.
Researchers from Kuopio University Hospital in Finland followed 397 children born in Finland between September 2002 and May 2005.
They recorded the number of respiratory symptoms and infections the children suffered from birth onwards, along with information about dog and cat contact during their first year of life.
Of the 397 children, 245 had dogs and 136 children had cats at home.
The findings revealed that the children who had had contact with dogs or cats were significantly healthier and were less likely to experience respiratory illness such as coughing or rhinitis. This was more prevalent in children who in particular had contact with dogs.
Children living in houses in which dogs spend only part of the day inside, six hours, had the lowest risk of infectious symptoms and respiratory tract illnesses.
The authors suggest a possible explanation for this might be that the amount of dirt brought inside the home by dogs could be higher in these families because they spent more time outdoors, in comparison to dogs that were more likely to be kept indoors.
The authors conclude, ‘To our knowledge, this is the first prospective study in which the frequencies of respiratory infectious symptoms and diseases are compared with weekly amounts of pet contacts in a diary follow-up manner during early infancy. Our results suggest that dog contacts protect children from respiratory tract infections during the first year of life.’
The study, ‘Respiratory tract illnesses during the first year of life: Effect of dog and cat contacts’, is published in the journal Paediatrics.
