Pet Ownership and the Risk of Dying from Cardiovascular Disease Among Adults Without Major Chronic Medical Conditions.

Ogechi I, Snook K, Davis BM, Hansen AR, Liu F, Zhang J

High blood pressure & cardiovascular prevention : the official journal of the Italian Society of Hypertension · September 1, 2016

We analyzed nationally representative data of 3964 adults aged ≥50 who were free from major physical illnesses, followed through 2006. With dogs being most popular pets, 34.6% of the study population owned a pet. Pet ownership was associated with low rates of CVD deaths [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.69] and stroke [0.54] at borderline significant levels among women, largely attributed to having a cat rather than a dog. Among cat owners, the HR of all CVD deaths was 0.62 and the HR of dying from stroke was 0.22 (0.07-0.68) compared with non-cat owners. Owning a cat rather than a dog was significantly associated with a reduced hazard of dying from CVD events, in particular, stroke.

PMID: 27174431 · DOI: 10.1007/s40292-016-0156-1