Author Interviews, Diabetes, Pediatrics / 03.05.2017
Having A Dog Doesn’t Protect Kids From Type 1 Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Tove Fall, PhD
Department of Medical Sciences
Molecular Epidemiology and Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University
Uppsala, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Type 1 diabetes is a severe chronic disease in children. There are few established risk factors, but it has been hypothesized that factors related to reduction of microbial exposure in childhood may increase the risk. We have previously shown that children in dog-owning families are at lower risk for asthma, and we now wanted to investigate the relationship of dog ownership and diabetes. We did this by studying the whole Swedish child population with record linkage across registers of health and dog ownership. We could not find evidence for an association of dog ownership and type 1 diabetes in the general population.
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