TY - JOUR
T1 - Associations of dog and cat ownership with wheezing and asthma in children
T2 - Pilot study of the Japan Environment and children’s study
AU - Taniguchi, Yu
AU - Yamazaki, Shin
AU - Michikawa, Takehiro
AU - Nakayama, Shoji F.
AU - Sekiyama, Makiko
AU - Nitta, Hiroshi
AU - Mezawa, Hidetoshi
AU - Saito-Abe, Mayako
AU - Oda, Masako
AU - Mitsubuchi, Hiroshi
AU - Sanefuji, Masafumi
AU - Ohga, Shouichi
AU - Mise, Nathan
AU - Ikegami, Akihiko
AU - Shimono, Masayuki
AU - Suga, Reiko
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by a national grant of the Japanese Ministry of Environment, and the Japan Environment and Children?s Study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Taniguchi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0232604
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0232604
M3 - Article
C2 - 32407337
AN - SCOPUS:85084845805
VL - 15
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 5
M1 - e0232604
ER -