Open AccessAssociations of dog and cat ownership with wheezing and asthma in children: Pilot study of the Japan Environment and children's study
Author(s) -
Yu Taniguchi,
Shin Yamazaki,
Takehiro Michikawa,
Shoji F. Nakayama,
Makiko Sekiyama,
Hiroshi Nitta,
Hidetoshi Mezawa,
Mayako SaitoAbe,
Masako Oda,
Hiroshi Mitsubuchi,
Masafumi Sanefuji,
Shouichi Ohga,
Nathan Mise,
Akihiko Ikegami,
Masayuki Shimono,
Reiko Suga
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0232604
Subject(s) - medicine , asthma , toddler , pediatrics , confounding , logistic regression , demography , environmental health , psychology , developmental psychology , sociology
Objectives No previous study has used repeated measures data to examine the associations of dog/cat ownership with wheezing and asthma prevalence among children. This prospective study used repeated measurers analysis to determine whether dog/cat ownership in childhood is an independent risk factor for wheezing and asthma, after adjustment for gestational, socio-economical, and demographical confounders confounders, in Japan. Methods We conducted a multicenter pilot study of the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS) during 2009–2010. Among 440 newborn infants enrolled, 410 (52.8% males) were evaluated for dog/cat ownership in the home and history of wheezing and asthma in five follow-up questionnaire surveys (until age 6 years). Dog/cat ownership during follow-up period was categorized into four groups: 7.6% were long-term dog/cat owners, 5.9% were toddler-age owners, 5.9% were preschool-age owners, and 80.7% were never owners. Results The prevalence of wheezing during follow-up period increased from 20.8% to 35.4% and the prevalence of asthma increased from 1.3% to 16.3%. A fitted logistic generalized estimating equation models including important confounders showed no significant associations of the interaction between dog and/or cat ownership and follow-up time with the risks of wheezing and asthma. However, the risks of wheezing and asthma were slightly lower for long-term and toddler-age dog/cat owners than for preschool-age and never owners. Conclusions The present findings suggest that dog and cat ownership from toddler-age does not increase the risks of wheezing and asthma compared with never owners among Japanese children.