Dog-walking injuries double among senior pet owners

Dogs need to go on walks, and walking is good exercise for older adults. Seniors who combine the two — by walking a dog — are healthier than people who don’t, according to some research.

But a new study by University of Pennsylvania researchers offers a cautionary note. Strolling with a leashed dog, it says, “imparts a significant and rising injury risk in older adults.”

Between 2004 and 2017, it found, bone fractures associated with walking leashed dogs more than doubled among U.S. residents 65 and older. Nearly eight in 10 who suffered fractures were women, and the most commonly broken bones were hips, wrists and upper arms.

The dog-walking fractures were reported in a public database published by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, which records injuries reported at a nationally representative sample of about 100 emergency rooms nationwide. The number, which increased from 1,671 in 2004 to 4,396 in 2017, rose at a rate significantly higher than the overall number of fractures did, said co-author Jaimo Ahn, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Penn Medicine.

Just why is unclear, though the senior population has grown as a percentage of the U.S. population. Ahn thinks other factors might be driving the increase. Baby boomers are more active than previous generations of seniors, he said. And though Ahn said he knows of no data that quantify this, he believes health-care providers are increasingly suggesting dog ownership as one way to improve health.

Though a growing body of research is finding correlations between pet ownership and health and happiness, this area of study is new, and many studies lack robust sample sizes or controls. Some researchers say findings about the downsides of pet ownership get too little attention

“We make all these recommendations about pets, and yet we don’t really understand if there are potential negative implications,” Ahn said. “There are things we should be aware of before saying, ‘Hey, you should get a dog and take your dog for a walk.’”