Background: Currently, whether exposure to pets is a protective factor for atopic dermatitis (AD) is controversial.
Objective: To investigate the association of pet exposure in early life with the incident AD.
Methods: This study was based on PRISMA. The authors independently searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE. We gathered cohort studies reporting on the ratio of pet exposure and incident AD and meta-analyzed them by relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and funnel plot were performed to evaluate the quality of the study and publication bias, respectively. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: We included 23 studies comprising 3174-25,527 participants with exposure age 0-12. The quality of included studies was generally gorgeous, with NOS 5-8. Dog exposure was negatively associated with the incident AD, with RRs of 0.82 (P = 0.002), but this trend was insignificant in cats (RR = 1.08; P = 0.490) and other pets (RR = 0.94; P = 0.550). Subgroup analysis showed participants exposed to dogs had a further lower AD risk in the North American populations (RR = 0.60; P < 0.001). Publication bias was not supported by the funnel plot.
Conclusion: This study finds exposure to dog pets in early life is negatively associated with newly developed AD, especially in North American populations.
Impact: Currently, whether exposure to pets is a protective factor for atopic dermatitis (AD) is controversial. This study finds exposure to dog pets in early life is negatively associated with newly developed atopic dermatitis, and this trend is more remarkable in North American populations. Associations of exposure to cats and other pets with atopic dermatitis are not found. These results discover a novel insights to prevention AD and related diseases.
© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the International Pediatric Research Foundation, Inc.