Dogs & Health benefits

Dog ownership, health and physical activity: a critical review of the literature.

Health Place. 2007 Mar;13(1):261-72. Epub 2006 Feb 28.

Cutt H, Giles-Corti B, Knuiman M, Burke V.
The RESIDE Project, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia. hecutt@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
This review examines the association between dog ownership and adult physical activity levels. While there is evidence to suggest that dog ownership produces considerable health benefit and provides an important form of social support that encourages dog owners to walk, there is limited evidence on the physical environmental and policy-related factors that affect dog owners walking with their dog. With the high level of dog ownership in many industrialized countries, further exploration of the relationship between dog ownership and physical activity levels may be important for preventing declining levels of physical activity and the associated detrimental health effects.

Dog ownership, walking behavior, and maintained mobility in late life.

J Am Geriatr Soc. 2006 Sep;54(9):1419-24.

Thorpe RJ Jr, Simonsick EM, Brach JS, Ayonayon H, Satterfield S, Harris TB, Garcia M, Kritchevsky SB; Health, Aging and Body Composition Study.
Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Balitmore Maryland 21224, USA. rthorpe3@jhmi.edu

OBJECTIVES: To examine dog walking among dog owners and the relationship between walking behavior of dog owners and non-dog owners and maintained gait speed over 3 years.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of a prospective cohort study.

SETTING: Memphis, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

PARTICIPANTS: Two thousand five hundred thirty-three community-dwelling adults aged 71 to 82 at 36 months of the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study.

MEASUREMENTS: Dog ownership, reported walking behavior, change in walking behavior, and usual and rapid gait speed over 3 years.

RESULTS: Of 394 dog owners, only 36% walked their dogs at least three times per week. Cross-sectionally, dog walkers were more likely to achieve 150 minutes of walking per week and had faster usual and rapid walking speeds (1.20 vs 1.14 m/s and 1.62 vs 1.52 m/s, respectively; P < .01 for both) than non-dog owners who did not walk at least three times per week and similar speeds as non-dog owners who walked at least 150 minutes per week (P > .50). Three years later, subjects who had been dog walkers at baseline were approximately twice as likely as any other group to achieve recommended walking levels, independent of covariates. Dog walkers experienced similar declines in usual and rapid walking speed as non-dog owners who walked at least three times per week but maintained their initial mobility advantage.

CONCLUSION: Although dog ownership appears to facilitate walking behavior, only a minority of older dog owners walk their dogs. The mobility advantage of dog ownership was seen only in dog walkers and was similar to that associated with any walking. Given suboptimal walking activity in older adults, examining the degree to which dog ownership promotes walking activity in persons who do little walking on their own appears worth pursuing.

Physical performance in peripheral arterial disease: a slower rate of decline in patients who walk more.

McDermott MM, Liu K, Ferrucci L, Criqui MH, Greenland P, Guralnik JM, Tian L, Schneider JR, Pearce WH, Tan J, Martin GJ.
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA. mdm608@northwestern.edu

BACKGROUND: Exercise rehabilitation programs increase treadmill walking performance in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and intermittent claudication. However, it is unknown whether patients with PAD who walk for exercise regularly have less functional decline than those with less walking activity.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patients with PAD who report that they walk for exercise 3 or more times per week have less annual functional decline than those who walk for exercise less frequently.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with a median follow-up of 36 months (interquartile range, 24 to 36 months).

SETTING: Academic medical center.

PARTICIPANTS: 417 men and women with PAD.

MEASUREMENTS: Participants were classified at baseline and annually according to the number of times they reportedly walked for exercise each week. Functional assessments (6-minute walk distance, 4-meter walking speed, summary performance score) were measured at baseline and annually. Results were adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, comorbid conditions, body mass index, ankle-brachial index, education, leg symptoms, cigarette use, geriatric depression score, previous year's level of functioning, and patterns of missing data.

RESULTS: Compared with those who exercised less frequently, patients who walked for exercise 3 or more times per week had a significantly smaller average annual decline in 6-minute walking distance (-48.0 feet per year compared with -56.6 feet per year for those who walked 1 to 2 times per week and -79.4 feet per year for nonexercisers; P for trend = 0.037). Patients who walked for exercise at least 3 times per week experienced a smaller average annual decline in the usual-paced 4-meter walking velocity (-0.014 m/s per year compared with -0.022 m/s per year for those who walked 1 to 2 times per week and -0.045 m/s per year for nonexercisers; P = 0.005). Similar findings were observed for the fast-paced 4-meter walk. The subset of asymptomatic patients who walked for exercise 3 or more times per week had annual declines in 6-minute walking performance (P = 0.107), normal-paced walking velocity (P = 0.065), and the summary performance score (P = 0.115); however, these declines were smaller than those observed in asymptomatic participants who walked fewer than 3 times per week.

LIMITATIONS: Because this was an observational study, associations reported here cannot be construed as causal relationships. Sample sizes for subgroup analyses were small, which limited statistical power.

CONCLUSION: Among patients with PAD, self-directed walking exercise performed at least 3 times weekly is associated with significantly less functional decline during the subsequent year. Similar trends were observed in the subset of asymptomatic patients with PAD. These findings may be particularly important for the numerous patients with PAD who do not have access to supervised walking exercise programs.