A Dog’s Life: It’s good for teens, and adults, too.
An article from the Los Angeles Times, by Shari Roan. Summary.
Dog ownership appears to make teens more active, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Virginia.
They surveyed 618 pairs of adolescents and their parents living in the Twin Cities about the number of dogs in the home and how much time they spent physically active. About half of the teens also wore accelerometers – devices that measure activity – for one week.
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Other studies show that adults who have dogs are more physically active, too. Even if people don’t walk their dogs regularly, just having a dog makes one more active because of chores such as getting up to feed the dog, letting it outside or cleaning up after it, the researchers said.
The study appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
