The risk of death for owners of dogs who have suffered a stroke or heart attack seems to be much lower than those incurred by non-owners. Proof once again that our four-legged friends are truly capable of saving our lives.
We know that simply having a dog has a positive effect on our cardiovascular health. The company of an animal makes it possible to reduce social isolation, which promotes premature death. She also invites us to do more physical exercises . Based on this observation, researchers wondered if having a dog waiting for us at home could also result in an improved chance of survival after a hospital stay. The short answer is yes.
For this work, researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden, studied several health registers in their country. They focused on the records of 182,000 patients aged 40 to 85 years who suffered an acute heart attack between 2001 and 2012. And about 150,000 people (same age group) who had a stroke during the same period.
In these two samples, one in 20 people had a dog ownership record (mandatory in Sweden). The researchers then pointed out that people who lived alone with their pet had about 30% less risk to die within a year of their heart attack. If a partner or child was expecting them, having a dog in the home improved the odds by about 15% .
Same observation following a stroke. People living alone with a dog were 27% less likely to die within a year of their attack. Those who had an animal in addition to a partner or child had an even better chance of survival (about 12%).
So owning a dog would be treatment effective for cardiovascular recovery. " If it were a medicine, a pharmaceutical company would make considerable wealth out of it " , explains Tove Fall, lead author of this study.
On the other hand, it does not encourage patients to adopt animals for this sole purpose. " From the point of view of their well-being, he insistsdogs should only be adopted by people who believe they have the ability and knowledge to provide the animal with a good life ” .
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