Do people share health risks with pets? Owners of dogs with diabetes more likely to develop disease: Study
Dogs and their owners may share a risk of developing diabetes, according to researchers. Their analysis suggests that compared with owning a dog without diabetes, owning a dog with diabetes is associated with a 38% increased risk of type 2 diabetes. This estimate did not change noticeably after adjusting for other risk factors. The team, however, did not find any shared risk of diabetes between cat owners and their pets.
According to the authors, the findings support the view that dog owners and their pets might share certain health behaviors, such as physical activity level. “Possible explanations for these findings include shared lifestyle behaviors, such as physical activity levels and dietary habits between dog owners and their dogs that affect the risk of diabetes. Lower concordance between cat owner and cat physical activity could help explain the absence of a shared diabetes risk in owner-cat pairs,” the investigators explain in the study published in The BMJ. They add, “Owner-cat pairs might share fewer health behaviors with regards to dietary habits and physical activity than owner-dog pairs, which could help explain the absence of a shared diabetes risk in owner-cat pairs.”
Type 2 diabetes is recognized as a major global public health challenge, with more than 400 million individuals affected worldwide. Corresponding with typical risk factors for type 2 diabetes in humans, diet, obesity, and level of physical activity influence the risk of diabetes in both dogs and cats. Some studies have suggested a link between adiposity (being severely overweight or obese) in dog owners and their pets, indicating that the two might share health behaviors such as activity level. But no analysis has investigated shared diabetes risk in dog and cat owners and their pets, say researchers.
To address the knowledge gap, the authors identified 208,980 owner-dog pairs (175,214 owners and 132,783 dogs) and 123,566 owner-cat pairs (89,944 owners and 84,143 cats) from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2006, using veterinary care insurance data.
The team includes experts from Uppsala University, Sweden; University of Liverpool, UK; and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. They linked the information collated to Swedish health and drug registers for identifying cases of type 2 diabetes in dog and cat owners and cases of diabetes in their pets over a six-year follow-up period, from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2012.
Multiple potentially influential factors were taken into account. These include personal and socioeconomic circumstances of the dog owners, such as age, sex, the region of residence, marital status, education level, and income, and age, sex and breed of pet.
The results reveal that the crude hazard ratio for type 2 diabetes in owners of a dog with diabetes compared with owners of a dog without diabetes was 1.38. The risk of developing diabetes was also 28% higher in dogs with an owner who had type 2 diabetes compared with dogs with an owner who did not have type 2 diabetes. This estimate, however, was reduced after adjusting for the age of the owner. No association was found between type 2 diabetes in cats and their owners.
This is an observational study, so the cause cannot be established and the authors were unable to assess diet and physical activity level as underlying causes of the associations. However, despite the limitation, the investigators emphasize this was a robust report showing that owning a dog with diabetes was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in the owner, which could not be explained by personal and socioeconomic circumstances of the dog owners. “It is possible that dogs with diabetes could serve as a sentinel for shared diabetogenic health behaviors and environmental exposures,” concludes the team.