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The study was presented at a meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Baltimore."Dog owners who don't walk their dog are missing a great opportunity to get physical activity and stay healthy," says researcher Cindy Lentino, MS, an exercise scientist at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.
"If you walk your dog just 30 minutes a day, you can meet national recommendations for physical activity," she tells WebMD.
It involved 916 healthy people averaging age 40, three-fourths of whom were women.
Compared with participants who regularly walked their four-legged pals, dog owners who didn't walk their pets:
- Were 58% more likely to be overweight or underweight.
- Were substantially less likely to meet the ACSM/American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for physical activity, which call for moderately intense cardio exercise at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. That means working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat, yet still being able to carry on a conversation.
- Spent about 30 more minutes sitting around every day, on average.
- Were more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure.
When matched against people who didn't own a dog, the dog walkers:
- Were 11% less likely to use tobacco products.
- Had about one-third the risk of diabetes.
- Were about 15% less likely to have high blood pressure and about 30% less likely to have high cholesterol.
- Were about 35% less likely to have symptoms of depression.
