Exposure to dogs and cats and risk of asthma: A retrospective study

Findings on the relationship between pet exposure and asthma in western countries are inconsistent. This retrospective study examined the association of owning a dog or cat with the onset of asthma in Japanese people. We also investigated whether there is a critical window during which exposure to dogs and cats can reduce the risk of asthma by stratifying the analysis by the age at which pet ownership began. We analyzed data collected in an internet survey conducted by the Japan Pet Food Association in 2021. Valid data were obtained from 4290 participants for analysis of dog ownership and 4308 participants for analysis of cat ownership. In these respective groups, 41.2% had owned a dog and 26.5% had owned a cat. During the follow-up period, 5.7% of dog owners and 14.8% of non-dog owners developed asthma, as did 5.6% of cat owners and 13.5% of non-cat owners. On binomial logistic regression analysis, participants who had not owned a dog had an odds ratio (OR) of 2.01 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.45–2.78) of developing asthma compared to those who had owned a dog after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics. The corresponding OR of asthma onset among participants who had not owned a cat was 2.24 (95%CI: 1.56–3.23). Stratified analysis showed that while younger participants who had not owned a dog had higher ORs of developing asthma, those who had not owned a cat had similar ORs of asthma onset across all age categories. These results suggest that while there may be a critical window in early life during which exposure to dogs can prevent asthma onset, the protective effect of cat exposure is constant across all ages in Japan.