Diabetes in Your Pet May Increase Your Risk

A recent cohort study offers more insight into whether cat and dog owners and their pets share a risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes.

Humans with diabetes cannot appropriately employ the energy they get from food due to a deficiency of insulin or an incapacity to respond to insulin, and a similar situation goes for pets. A new study developed by the University of Uppsala (Sweden) has examined whether dog and cat owners and their pets share the danger of acquiring diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is acknowledged as a significant global public health difficulty, with more than four hundred million individuals afflicted worldwide. In Sweden, the predominance of type 2 diabetes in adults almost strikes five percent, and this is predicted to increase in the future. The anticipated rise is somewhat attributable to aging, and it is also inspired by profound alterations in lifestyle habits and obesity. The predominance of diabetes in dogs and cats also might be on the rise. 

This study aimed to determine if there is a link in type 2 diabetes between pets, mostly cats and dogs, and their owners. They utilized Agria Pet Insurance data and the official Swedish Registers, including the National Patient Registry, the Causes of Death, and the Swedish Prescription Drug Registry. The analysis included 208,980 pairs of owners and their dog(s) and 123,566 pairs of owners with their cat(s), identified during an initial evaluation period from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2006. Exclusions specified were dogs, cats, and their owners, who died or emigrated from Sweden before January 1, 2007, with inadequate baseline or follow-up data or inconsistent emigration status. The study also excluded those owners with more than ten insured pets and those owners and pets diagnosed with diabetes before January 1, 2007.  

The statistical analysis used was Weibull-Markov multi-state model. This model explained that the combined diabetes status (no diabetes in owner or pet, diabetes in pet only or both) of the owner-pet pairs during baseline helps determine their diagnosis concerning the disease at the end of the study. Multi-state models evaluated risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals and adjusted for possible shared risk determinants, including personal and socioeconomic circumstances. 

The owner-dog pairs’ baseline characteristics included age and sex of owners and pets, breed group, individual and socioeconomic factors, including birth country, residency, highest education level, marital status, and income. In dogs’ owners and dogs, results found that around six years of follow-up, the incidence rate of type 2 diabetes was 7.7 cases per 1000 person-years, while in dogs, the incidence was 1.3 per 1000 dog years at risk. Additionally, the hazard ratio for owners with type 2 diabetes of a dog with the disease compared with those having a dog without diabetes was 1.38. A 95% confidence interval of 1.10 to 1.74 was observed. In contrast, owners with type 2 diabetes were related to increasing the hazard of diabetes in the dog.  

Type 2 diabetes incidence in cat owners was 7.9 cases per 1000 person-years at risk, while in cats was 2.2 cases. Unlike the results expressed in dogs, having a cat with diabetes was not related to an increase in type 2 diabetes, and the risks were not observed to increase in cats with an owner with type 2 diabetes.  

In conclusion, the researchers explained that, based on their data, having a dog diagnosed with diabetes was related to a increased risk of type 2 diabetes in the owner. The possible mechanisms underlying their findings on diabetes in dog-owner pairs possibly incorporate shared health habits, such as physical activity level, and perhaps also shared environmental exposures. Thus, according to the study’s authors, diabetic dogs could be considered “sentinels” of environmental factors that could lead their owners to diabetes. 

Practice Pearls:  

• Owners of diabetic dogs are more predisposed to develop type 2 diabetes during a follow-up than owners of non-diabetic dogs.  
• Everyday lifestyle and environmental determinants can impact diabetes risk in dogs and their owners.  
• There was no shared risk of diabetes found correlated with cat owners and their pets.  

Delicano, Rachel Ann, et al. “The Shared Risk of Diabetes between Dog and Cat Owners and Their Pets:  The BMJ, December 10, 2020, www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4337. 

Malmberg, Åsa. “Diabetes in Dogs May Indicate Elevated Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Their Owners.” Article – Uppsala University, Sweden, Åsa Malmberg, December 11, 2020,  

Marianis Barreto Quintana, PharmD. Candidate, LECOM School of Pharmacy