Does Your Canine Have Diabetes? You Could Be at Increased Danger of Diabetes, Too

If your dog has diabetes you may be at a higher risk of developing the disease yourself. These are the results of a new study by the BMJ, in which data on pet insurance in Sweden were examined together with medical records from the Swedish national patient registry.

The researchers tracked 208,980 dog owners and 123,566 cat owners in Sweden for an average of six years. Compared to dog owners without type 2 diabetes, owners of the disease were older, more likely to be men, and less likely to have a university degree. Keeper couples in whom only the animal had diabetes were more likely to be females and more likely to have dogs belonging to breeds with a high risk of disease – such as border collies, samoyed and miniature poodles.

After adjusting for socio-economic and other factors, the researchers found that people who owned diabetic dogs were 32 percent more likely to develop diabetes themselves than people who owned dogs who did not have diabetes. The association was weaker after adjustment to the age of the owner and did not exist among cat owners.

Lead author, Beatrice Kennedy, a postdoctoral fellow at Uppsala University, said that common lifestyle factors between dog and owner may be responsible for the association, but that the study was observational and therefore failed to establish cause and effect and the precise reasons for the association are unknown.

Even so, she said, “If your dog has diabetes, this may be a good opportunity to assess your own health habits and see if there is room for improvement.”

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