anthrozoology.org

Health & Place
Volume 13, Issue 1, March 2007, Pages 261-272

Hayley Cutt, Billie Giles-Corti, Matthew Knuiman

The RESIDE Project, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia

Valerie Burke

School of Medicine and Pharmacology, Royal Perth Hospital Unit, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia

Received 3 May 2005;  revised 15 November 2005;  accepted 10 January 2006.  Available online 28 February 2006.

Abstract

This review examines the association between dog ownership and adult physical activity levels. While there is evidence to suggest that dog ownership produces considerable health benefit and provides an important form of social support that encourages dog owners to walk, there is limited evidence on the physical environmental and policy-related factors that affect dog owners walking with their dog. With the high level of dog ownership in many industrialized countries, further exploration of the relationship between dog ownership and physical activity levels may be important for preventing declining levels of physical activity and the associated detrimental health effects.