Associations of early-life pet ownership with asthma and allergic sensitization: A meta-analysis of more than 77,000 children from the EU Child Cohort Network

Angela Pinot de Moira*, Katrine Strandberg-Larsen, Tom Bishop, Marie Pedersen, Demetris Avraam, Tim Cadman, Lucinda Calas, Maribel Casas, Blandine de Lauzon Guillain, Ahmed Elhakeem, Ana Esplugues, Marisa Estarlich, Rachel E. Foong, Sido Haakma, Jennifer R. Harris, Rae Chi Huang, Hazel Inskip, Aitana Lertxundi, Sara M. Mensink-Bout, Johanna L.T. NaderCostanza Pizzi, Maja Popovic, Theodosia Salika, Jordi Sunyer, Evelien R. Van Meel, Morris A. Swertz, Vincent W.V. Jaddoe, Paul Burton, Liesbeth Duijts, Anne Marie Nybo Andersen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Background: Studies examining associations of early-life cat and dog ownership with childhood asthma have reported inconsistent results. Several factors could explain these inconsistencies, including type of pet, timing, and degree of exposure. Objective: Our aim was to study associations of early-life cat and dog ownership with asthma in school-aged children, including the role of type (cat vs dog), timing (never, prenatal, or early childhood), and degree of ownership (number of pets owned), and the role of allergic sensitization. Methods: We used harmonized data from 77,434 mother-child dyads from 9 birth cohorts in the European Union Child Cohort Network when the child was 5 to 11 years old. Associations were examined through the DataSHIELD platform by using adjusted logistic regression models, which were fitted separately for each cohort and combined by using random effects meta-analysis. Results: The prevalence of early-life cat and dog ownership ranged from 12% to 45% and 7% to 47%, respectively, and the prevalence of asthma ranged from 2% to 20%. There was no overall association between either cat or dog ownership and asthma (odds ratio [OR] = 0.97 [95% CI = 0.87-1.09] and 0.92 [95% CI = 0.85-1.01], respectively). Timing and degree of ownership did not strongly influence associations. Cat and dog ownership were also not associated with cat- and dog-specific allergic sensitization (OR = 0.92 [95% CI = 0.75-1.13] and 0.93 [95% CI = 0.57-1.54], respectively). However, cat- and dog-specific allergic sensitization was strongly associated with school-age asthma (OR = 6.69 [95% CI = 4.91-9.10] and 5.98 [95% CI = 3.14-11.36], respectively). There was also some indication of an interaction between ownership and sensitization, suggesting that ownership may exacerbate the risks associated with pet-specific sensitization but offer some protection against asthma in the absence of sensitization. Conclusion: Our findings do not support early-life cat and dog ownership in themselves increasing the risk of school-age asthma, but they do suggest that ownership may potentially exacerbate the risks associated with cat- and dog-specific allergic sensitization.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)82-92
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Volume150
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The LifeCycle project received funding from the European Union's (EU's) Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant 733206 LifeCycle) and was supported by the EUCAN-Connect project under the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant 824989). Support was also provided by the following: a Lundbeck Foundation fellowship (R264-2017-3099 [to A.P.]); a Sapera Aude: DFF-Reasearch Leader grant (grant 8045-00047B [to K.S.L.); a Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award from the Health Effects Institute, Boston, Massachusetts (grant CR-83590201 [to M.P.]); a European Research Council Starting Grant (grant 758151 [to M.P.]); the National Institute of Health ([to M.P.]), the EU ([to M.P.]), and the city of Copenhagen ([to M.P.]), a Miguel Servet fellowship (CP16/00128) funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III and cofunded by the European Social Fund Investing in Your Future (to M.C.); a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) fellowship (grant 114032 [to R.E.F.]); an NHMRC fellowship (grant 1053384 [to R.C.H.]) and NHMRC EU (grant 114285 [to R.C.H.]); the EU's Horizon 2020 co-funded programme ERA-Net on Biomarkers for Nutrition and Health ALPHABET project (grant 696295; 2017 [to L.D.]), ZonMw The Netherlands (grant 529051014 [2017] [to L.D.]); and the EUCAN-Connect project under the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant 824989 [to T.B.]). This article reflects only the authors’ views; the commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information that it contains. All study-specific acknowledgments and funding are presented in the Supplementary Information 4 and 5 (available in the Online Repository at www.jacionline.org).

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

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