# Association Between Diet Type and Owner‐Reported Health Conditions in Dogs in the Dog Aging Project

## TL;DR

This study found that alternative dog diets like home-cooked and raw diets may be linked to higher risks of certain health issues compared to standard extruded diets.

## Contribution

The study provides empirical evidence on the association between alternative dog diets and specific health conditions in a large sample of dogs.

## Key findings

- Home-cooked diets were linked to higher odds of gastrointestinal, renal, and hepatic diseases.
- Commercial raw diets were associated with increased odds of respiratory disease.
- The study used a large dataset to analyze diet-health associations in dogs.

## Abstract

Alternative dog diets, such as home‐cooked and raw, have grown in popularity. Claims regarding health benefits for these diets have limited supporting evidence.

To evaluate whether feeding home‐cooked, commercial raw, or homemade raw diets is associated with health conditions compared to extruded diets.

Twenty‐seven thousand four hundred seventy‐eight dogs.

Cross‐sectional, survey‐based study. We analyzed a large cross‐sectional dataset (n = 27 478) of dogs fed homemade cooked (n = 1214), commercial raw (n = 961), homemade raw (n = 329), or extruded (n = 24 974) diets. We investigated associations between diet and 13 owner‐reported health condition categories. Logistic regression was used for the analysis of all health conditions.

Controlling for sex, age, and body size or breed, a home‐cooked diet was associated with higher odds of gastrointestinal (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.4; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2–1.7), renal (aOR: 1.3; CI: 1.1–1.6), and hepatic disease (aOR: 1.6; CI: 1.2–2.0) compared to an extruded diet. A commercial raw diet was associated with higher odds of respiratory disease (aOR 1.7; CI: 1.3–2.3) compared to an extruded diet.

Analysis of cross‐sectional data can only suggest effects of diet on health and are most useful for hypothesis generation or for testing existing hypotheses.