Do Dog Owners Live Longer? What the Studies Show

Dog owners do tend to live longer in large studies: a 2019 meta-analysis of nearly 3.8 million people found a 24% lower risk of death from any cause over about ten years. But these studies show a link, not proof that the dog is the reason, and not every study finds the effect.

What does the biggest study say?

The largest summary of the evidence found that dog owners had a 24% lower risk of dying during follow-up than people without dogs. The benefit appeared strongest for people who had already had a heart attack.

The 2019 meta-analysis, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, combined ten studies with 3,837,005 participants followed for an average of 10.1 years. Compared with non-owners, dog owners had:

• a 24% lower risk of death from any cause (relative risk 0.76)
• a 31% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease (relative risk 0.69)
• a 65% lower risk of death after a previous heart attack or other coronary event (relative risk 0.35)

The authors themselves pointed out a key limitation: the pooled analyses weren't adjusted for other factors, such as age, health or income, that might explain the difference.

Does living alone make a difference?

Yes, the strongest results come from people who live alone. A Swedish study of more than 3.4 million adults, followed for up to 12 years, found that dog ownership was linked to a much bigger drop in risk for single-person households than for families.

Sweden is a good place for this kind of research because dog ownership there is registered, and the records can be linked to national health and death registers. In that 2017 study:

• People living alone with a dog had a 33% lower risk of death and a 36% lower risk of cardiovascular death than those living alone without one.
• In households of two or more people, the reduction was smaller: 11% for death from any cause and 15% for cardiovascular death.
• Owners of hunting breeds, such as terriers and retrievers, had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease.

A follow-up study in 2019 looked at about 336,000 Swedes who had been treated for a heart attack or an ischaemic stroke. Dog owners who lived alone had a 33% lower risk of death after a heart attack and 27% lower after a stroke, compared with people living alone without a dog. For those living with a partner or child, the reductions were 15% and 12%. The researchers stressed that unmeasured factors, smoking among them, meant they couldn't conclude that the dogs caused the difference.

Why might a dog help you live longer?

The most likely explanations are more physical activity, less loneliness and some protection against stress. The American Heart Association's 2013 statement on pets and heart health saw increased exercise as probably the most important factor.

Each of these is a story in itself:

• Exercise. Dog owners are more likely to meet weekly activity guidelines, mainly because of walks. We look at the details in Do dog owners really get more exercise?
• Company and social contact. The stronger effect for people living alone points to companionship. A dog also gets you talking to neighbours on the street. Read more in Can a pet help with loneliness?
• Heart health. Some studies link pet ownership to lower blood pressure, though the picture there is also mixed. See Can pets lower your blood pressure?

Could it be that healthier people get dogs?

Quite possibly, and this is the main reason scientists are cautious. People who are already fit, wealthier or socially active may be more likely to take on a dog, and people who are seriously ill may be less likely to.

The Swedish researchers tried to account for this by adjusting for factors such as age, income, marital status, children at home and existing illnesses. Even so, they couldn't measure everything. Another analysis of Swedish register data found that dog owners were, if anything, very slightly more likely to start medication for high blood pressure or cholesterol. That suggests the lower death rates can't simply be explained by dog owners having healthier blood pressure and cholesterol.

Do all studies find that dog owners live longer?

No. A large Norwegian study, part of the HUNT health survey, followed about 25,000 dog owners for a median of 18.5 years and found no difference in the risk of death compared with non-owners (hazard ratio 1.00).

Interestingly, the dog owners in that study weren't more physically active than non-owners either. The authors suggested this might be because the Norwegian population they studied was already quite active, and said more research was needed.

A Japanese study of 11,233 adults aged 65 and over found that current dog owners had roughly half the odds of developing a disability over roughly three and a half years. But over that time, the link between owning a dog or cat and death from any cause wasn't statistically significant.

Should you get a dog to live longer?

Not for that reason alone. The authors of the American Heart Association statement were clear that the reason to adopt a pet is to give it a good home, not to lower your heart risk.

The evidence points in a hopeful direction, especially for people living alone, but the dog seems to help most when it changes daily life: more walks, more contact with other people, more reasons to get up and go out. Those things matter whether or not there's a dog at the end of the lead.

If you already share your life with a dog, the research gives you one more reason to value the routine of the daily walk. And if you've lost a dog recently, it's worth remembering that the years you spent together may well have done you good, too.