The association between dog ownership or dog walking and fitness or weight status in childhood



Westgarth, C ORCID: 0000-0003-0471-2761, Boddy, LM, Stratton, G, German, AJ ORCID: 0000-0002-3017-7988, Gaskell, R, Coyne, KP, Bundred, P, McCune, S and Dawson, S
(2017) The association between dog ownership or dog walking and fitness or weight status in childhood. Paediatric Obesity, 12 (6). e51-e56.

Access the full-text of this item by clicking on the Open Access link.
[img] Text
Sportslinx fitness and weight ped ob revision1 noreftags noTC.pdf - Author Accepted Manuscript

Download (349kB)
[img] Text
Westgarth_et_al-2016-Pediatric_Obesity PUBLISHED.pdf - Published version

Download (94kB)

Abstract

Background Health benefits of dog walking are established in adults: dog owners are on average more physically active, and those walking their dogs regularly have lower weight status than those who do not. However, there has been little research on children. Objectives This study aimed to examine the association between dog ownership or dog walking and childhood fitness or weight status. Methods A survey of pet ownership and involvement in dog walking was combined with fitness and weight status measurements of 1021 9 to 10‐year‐old children in the Liverpool SportsLinx study. Results We found little evidence to support that children who live with, or walk with, dogs are any fitter or less likely to be obese than those who do not. Conclusions This is an important finding, as it suggests that the activity that children currently do with dogs is not sufficient enough to impact weight status or fitness.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Dogs, paediatric obesity, physical fitness
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 27 Jul 2016 14:25
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 07:32
DOI: 10.1111/ijpo.12176
Open Access URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijpo.12...
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3002571