Association of pet-keeping in home with self-reported asthma and asthma-related symptoms in 11611 school children from China

Abstract

Objective

We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the associations between domestic pets and respiratory health in children.

Methods

We randomly recruited 11,611 school children from Zhongshan, a southern city in China. Information about the respiratory symptoms and disease history of the recruited children, the status of domestic pets, and other related risk factors were collected from March to July 2016.

Results

We identified cat-keeping at home increases the risk of persistent cough (OR, 1.77; 95%CI, 1.03–3.05); poultry-keeping at home increases the risk of current asthma (OR, 3.87; 95%CI, 1.08–13.92) and allergic rhinitis (OR, 1.84; 95%CI, 1.01–3.37); sleeping with pets increases the risk of persistent phlegm (OR, 5.04; 95%CI, 1.05–24.28), doctor-diagnosed asthma (OR, 3.35; 95%CI, 1.31–8.57) and current asthma (OR, 4.94; 95%CI, 1.05–23.31) in children.

Conclusions

Cat-keeping and molds on the wall of the house had the multiplicative and additive interaction in doctor-diagnosed asthma. In conclusion, pet-keeping increased the risk of respiratory symptoms in children.

Keywords:

• Asthma
• pets
• interaction
• molds
• children
• China

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the cooperation of participants in this study who had been very generous with their time and assistance. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their very insightful and constructive comments.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the Zhongshan Municipal Science and Technology Project (grant no. 2017B1001).