Arizona Canine Cognition Center, School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Canine Companions for Independence, National Headquarters, Santa Rosa, CA, USA.
Geroscience. 2022 Jun;44(3):1779-1790. doi: 10.1007/s11357-022-00575-7. Epub 2022 Apr 28.
A variety of diets have been studied for possible anti-aging effects. In particular, studies of intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding in laboratory rodents have found evidence of beneficial health outcomes. Companion dogs represent a unique opportunity to study diet in a large mammal that shares human environments. The Dog Aging Project has been collecting data on thousands of companion dogs of all different ages, sizes, and breeds since 2019. We leveraged this diverse cross-sectional dataset to investigate associations between feeding frequency and cognitive function (n = 10,474) as well as nine broad categories of health conditions (n = 24,238). Controlling for sex, age, breed, and other potential confounders, we found that dogs fed once daily rather than more frequently had lower mean scores on a cognitive dysfunction scale, and lower odds of having gastrointestinal, dental, orthopedic, kidney/urinary, and liver/pancreas disorders. Therefore, we find that once-daily feeding is associated with better health in multiple domains. Future research with longitudinal data can provide stronger evidence for a possible causal effect of feeding frequency on health in companion dogs.
多种饮食方案都曾被研究以探寻其可能的抗衰老效果。特别是，对实验室啮齿动物进行的间歇性禁食和限时喂养的研究发现，这些方案对健康有益。宠物犬是一个研究人类环境中大型哺乳动物饮食的独特机会。自 2019 年以来，“犬类衰老研究项目”一直在收集数千只不同年龄、体型和品种的宠物犬的数据。我们利用这个多样化的横断面数据集，调查了喂养频率与认知功能（n=10474）以及九大类健康状况（n=24238）之间的关联。在控制了性别、年龄、品种和其他潜在混杂因素后，我们发现，每天只喂食一次的狗在认知功能障碍量表上的平均得分较低，并且胃肠道、牙齿、骨科、肾脏/泌尿系统和肝脏/胰腺疾病的几率也较低。因此，我们发现，每日一次的喂养与多个领域的健康状况改善有关。未来使用纵向数据的研究可以为喂养频率对宠物犬健康的可能因果效应提供更强有力的证据。
