Living With Cats Not Linked To Worse Asthma in Children

THURSDAY, June 11, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Parents don’t have to give away Kitty or Tabby to protect their kids from asthma, a new study says.

Living with a cat does not worsen asthma in children and teens, researchers reported June 9 in the journal Frontiers in Allergy.

“Children living with a cat had similar asthma severity, exacerbation, asthma control and lung function to children living without cats in the short term,” lead researcher Resthie Putri, a postdoctoral fellow at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in a news release.

“We also did not see any differences in asthma outcomes related to the number of cats, the cat’s sex or the cat’s age,” Putri said.

Parents have reported that exposure to animal dander appears to trigger asthma attacks, but studies so far have returned contradictory findings, researchers said in background notes.

For the new study, researchers analyzed health data on more than 30,000 Swedish children and teens up to age 17 born between 2006 and 2020 and diagnosed with either asthma or airway allergies.

The team followed the youth for two years, tracking their asthma and comparing those with cats and with no cats in their home.

About 1 in 10 children (9%) had at least one cat in their home, researchers found.

However, the presence of a cat did not appear to affect a child’s asthma:

• Moderate-to-severe asthma occurred in about 10% of either group of kids.

• Asthma attacks occurred in about 3% of either group.

• No significant differences in overall lung function were found.

“One possible explanation is that cat allergen exposure is very common, even outside the home,” Putri said. “Children who do not have cats at home may still be exposed in shared environments such as schools or public transportation, which could explain why we didn’t see a difference.”

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more on asthma and pets.

SOURCE: Frontiers, news release, June 10, 2026