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Why
do they matter?
For
reasons which are not understood, allergies to dogs are
much less common that cat allergies. When they do occur,
however, the symptoms are very similar.
There
is some evidence, however, that owning a dog may protect
children from getting allergies to other things. We have
been studying this effect in Ashford. The explanation
is not known but it may relate to silent infections transmitted
from dogs to small children.
What
did we find in Ashford?
One
third of homes kept one or more pet dogs:
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How
many dogs do people keep?
|
| number
of homes in the Ashford study |
|
|
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Ashford
parents who had a pet dog when they were young
were less likely to be atopic - the same wasn't
true for pet cats
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| percentage
of Ashford parents who were atopic |
|
|
|
pet
dog in childhood
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|
pet
cat in childhood |
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Those
who had kept pet dogs when they were children were less
likely now to be atopic. The same wasn't true for pet cats:
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Large
families keep more dogs (but not cats!)
|
| percentage
of homes which keep a dog or cat |
|
|
|
number
of children in the home
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We
are not sure why this is the case; but it isn't the first
time that this has been reported. It may be that living
with a pet dog gives rise to minor infections (most of which
go unnoticed) and these are in some way protective.
|
How
many dogs do people keep
|
| number
of homes in the Ashford study |
|
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