Association between Early Life Child Development and Family Dog Ownership: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study of the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

Machiko Minatoya, Atsuko Ikeda-Araki, Chihiro Miyashita, Sachiko Itoh, Sumitaka Kobayashi, Keiko Yamazaki, Yu Ait Bamai, Yasuaki Saijo, Yukihiro Sato, Yoshiya Ito, Reiko Kishi and The Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group
Additional contact information
Machiko Minatoya: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Atsuko Ikeda-Araki: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Chihiro Miyashita: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Sachiko Itoh: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Sumitaka Kobayashi: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Keiko Yamazaki: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Yu Ait Bamai: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Yasuaki Saijo: Department of Social Medicine, Asahikawa Medical University, Asahikawa 078-8510, Japan
Yukihiro Sato: Department of Social Medicine, Asahikawa Medical University, Asahikawa 078-8510, Japan
Yoshiya Ito: Faculty of Nursing, Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido College of Nursing, Kitami 090-0011, Japan
Reiko Kishi: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
The Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group: A complete list of the centers and investigators in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group is provided in Appendix A.

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-14

Abstract: Pets may play a role in the social-emotional development of children. In particular, some studies have suggested that family dog ownership is associated with better health outcomes. To date, no study has assessed child development in association with dog ownership of different time points. The purpose of the current study was primary to investigate whether “ever” family dog ownership was associated with early child development, and secondary to further examine whether associations between family dog ownership and early child development differ among family dog ownership of status, including “past only”, “current only”, and “always” groups, using the data of family dog ownership obtained at multiple time points. Associations between family dog ownership and infant development at 3 years of age were examined using data from a nationwide prospective birth cohort study, the Japan Environment and Children’s Study ( n = 78,941). “Ever” family dog ownership was categorized to “past only”, “current only”, and “always”. We observed that children with “ever” family dog ownership showed a significantly decreased risk of developmental delay in the communication (odds ratio [OR] = 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.78, 0.96), gross motor (OR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.92), problem-solving (OR = 0.89; 95% CI: 0.83, 0.96) and personal-social (OR = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.92) domains compared to children with “never” family dog ownership. Furthermore, a significantly decreased risk of developmental delay in gross motor function was observed in association with living with dogs in the “past only” (OR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.73, 0.95) and “always” (OR = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.75, 0.98). In addition, a decreased risk of developmental delay in the problem-solving domain was associated with “past” family dog ownership (OR = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79, 0.97) and in the personal-social domain was associated with “always” family dog ownership (OR = 0.81; 95% CI = 0.68, 0.95). Given the possible positive association between early life child development and family dog ownership, living with dogs may be an important factor to be considered when assessing child development.

Keywords: family dog ownership; child development; birth cohort (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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