Relationship between pet ownership and asthma of children aged 6~7 in Germany

  Objective   To analyze association of pet ownership with childhood asthma.

  Methods   2000~2002 core questions from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood(ISAAC)phaseⅠwere adopted to collect the data among school beginners in 2 small towns in northern Germany: Wilhelmshaven and Delmenhorst.Association between pet ownership and childhood asthma was analyzed by use of Logistic models.

  Results   Owning a dog had protective influence on childhood asthma with negative family history of allergic diseases; owning a cat seemed to have no association with childhood asthma while owning a bird mighthave protective effect on those with positive family history.Positive family history was not a confounding factor for association of owning pets with childhood asthma within the data.Different family history had different influence on association of pet ownership with childhood asthma.

  Conclusion   Owing pets seems not to be risk factors for childhood asthma.Owning a dog seems to have protective effects on asthmatic children, especially on those who have negative family history of allergic diseases, odds ratios between them are statistical significant.