Family dog ownership and levels of physical activity in childhood: findings from the Child Heart and Health Study in England.
Dog ownership is associated with higher physical activity levels in adults; whether this association occurs in children is unknown. We used accelerometry to examine physical activity levels in 2065 children aged 9 to 10 years. Children from dog-owning families spent more time in light or moderate to vigorous physical activity and recorded higher levels of activity counts per minute (25; 95% confidence interval [CI]=6, 44) and steps per day (357; 95% CI=14, 701) than did children without dogs.
Owen
Christopher G
CG
Division of Community Health Sciences, St George's, University of London. London, SW17 0RE, UK. cowen@sgul.ac.uk
Nightingale
Claire M
CM
Rudnicka
Alicja R
AR
Ekelund
Ulf
U
McMinn
Alison M
AM
van Sluijs
Esther M F
EM
Griffin
Simon J
SJ
Cook
Derek G
DG
Whincup
Peter H
PH
D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004285:Dogs; D004739:England; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation; D009043:Motor Activity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires