Are Pet Owners a Healthier Group of People?
I was having a great discussion about all of the aspects of preventive health with an academic friend of mine recently and a very interesting issue came up of whether raising children with pets will make them healthier. Yes, of course they make them healthier I said astoundingly, citing studies that I had been aware of from the cardiac literature that have shown that pet owners were more likely to complete cardiac rehabilitation compared to non owners (Mary M. Herrald, Joe Tomaka, Amanda Y. Medina) and that pet owners had lower blood pressure compared with non owners (Anderson, W. P., C. M. Reid, and G. L. Jennings, Medical Journal of Australia, v. 157, p. 298-301. 1992 ) and even some that have shown an improvement in pet owners mental health compared with non owners (Schneider, M. S.; Harley, L. P. Anthrozoos. 2006. 19: 2, 128-142). So I was amazed when my friend quoted a recent study that was published in 2006 from the University of Turku in Finland showing that pet owners have a higher BMI, higher cholesterol, more back pain, are in need of more exercise and in general are in a “poor” state of health compared to the non owners. How can this be I responded? So I quickly went to my laptop and searched for pet owner's health. A study from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine popped ...
Posted in: Pet's & Their People
