Among patients with coronary artery disease, pet owners exhibit a greater 1-year survival
rate than nonowners. Lifestyle-related diseases are well-known risk factors for coronary
artery disease and induce imbalances in autonomic nervous activity. The purpose of
the present study was to determine whether pet ownership modulates cardiac autonomic
nervous activity imbalance in patients with lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes
mellitus, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. A total of 191 patients (mean age 69 ±
8 years) were interviewed about their pet ownership status and were classified into
pet owner and nonowner groups. After recording a 24-hour Holter electrocardiogram
for heart rate variability analysis, frequency-domain and nonlinear-domain analyses
were performed to determine the high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) components,
LF/HF ratio, and entropy. The heart rate variability parameters were assessed for
24 hours, during the day (8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.), and during the night (0:00 a.m. to 6.00 a.m.), and compared between the 2 groups. To evaluate the potential predictive factors
for cardiac autonomic imbalance, univariate and multivariate analyses of HF and LF/HF
were conducted for potential confounding variables. The pet owner group exhibited
significantly greater HF24h, HFday, HFnight, entropy24h, entropyday, and entropynight and significantly lower LF/HF24h and LF/HFnight compared to the nonowner group. On multivariate analysis, pet ownership was independently
and positively associated with HF24h, HFday, and HFnight and inversely associated with LF/HF24h and LF/HFnight. In conclusion, these results suggest that pet ownership is an independent modulator
of cardiac autonomic imbalance in patients with lifestyle-related diseases.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 27, 2012
Accepted:
November 7,
2011
Received in revised form:
November 7,
2011
Received:
September 14,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
