Pet dogs and children's health: opportunities for chronic disease prevention?

Pet dogs and children's health: opportunities for chronic disease prevention?
Positive associations between having a pet dog and health outcomes in adults have been documented; however, little evidence exists on the benefits of pet dogs for young children. This study investigates the hypothesis that pet dogs are positively associated with healthy weight and mental health among children.
This cross-sectional study accumulated a consecutive sample of children older than 18 months in a pediatric primary care setting. The study involved 643 children (mean age, 6.7 years); 96% were white, 45% were female, 56% had private insurance, and 58% had pet dogs at home. Prior to an annual visit, parents of children ages 4 to 10 completed DartScreen, a comprehensive web-based health risk screening administered via an electronic tablet. The domains of the screening were child body mass index (BMI), physical activity, screen time, mental health, and pet-related issues.
Children with and children without pet dogs did not differ in BMI ( P = 0.80), screen time of 2 hours or less ( P = 0.99), or physical activity ( P = 0.07). A smaller percentage of children with dogs (12%) met the Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Disorders (SCARED-5) clinical cut-off value of 3 or more, compared with children without dogs (21%, P = 0.002) . The mean SCARED-5 score was lower among children with dogs (1.13) compared with children without dogs (1.40; P = 0.01). This relationship was maintained in multivariate analysis after controlling for several covariates.
Having a pet dog in the home was associated with a lower likelihood of childhood anxiety. Future studies need to establish whether this relationship is causal and, if so, how pet dogs alleviate childhood anxiety.
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