Having a pet can help slow cognitive decline in older people who live alone, according to research that analyzed data from almost 8,000 UK citizens followed over eight years. A possible explanation, the authors of the research point out, is that having a pet reduces the feeling of loneliness, which increases the risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s, as has been observed in previous studies.
The researchers have relied on data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), which is freely accessible to scientists around the world. The participants in the study were asked between 2010 and 2011, among other questions, how many people they lived with and if they had any pets, although they were not asked which one. In addition, they underwent health tests every two years until 2019 that included verbal memory and verbal fluency tests.
The 7,945 people whose data has been analyzed had an average age of 66 years in 2010. Of them, 35% (2,791 people) lived with a pet. 27% (2,139) lived alone. And 619 people (8% of the sample) met both conditions: they lived with a pet but without other people.
According to results presented this week in JAMA Network Open, people who lived alone had a faster decline in verbal memory and fluency than those who lived with other people. But if they had a pet, their verbal abilities remained the same as those of those who did not live alone. For those who lived with other people, having a pet did not have an additional protective effect.
These data add to those of previous studies that had already suggested that having a pet has positive effects on brain health in older people. The new research is the first to look at the issue prospectively (and not retrospectively), looking at cognitive decline over years (rather than at a single point in time) and in a large sample representative of a national population.
Based on the data available from the ELSA study, the research cannot demonstrate that the relationship between having a companion animal and the prevention of cognitive decline is cause-and-effect. But “having a pet can slow cognitive decline in several ways. The first is that the company of the animal can reduce loneliness and increase well-being,” Ciyong Lu, epidemiologist at Sun Yat-sen University in Canton (China) and director of the research, states in an email.
“Another hypothesis is that single people who have an animal suffer less social isolation, especially if it is a dog, because taking it for a walk probably favors socialization,” adds David Bartrés-Faz, professor of medical psychology at the University of Barcelona and researcher. from the Institut Guttmann, which studies how brain health is maintained throughout life.
Bartrés-Faz highlights that “having an animal in your care forces you to plan and manage,” which keeps the executive functions of the brain active. On the other hand, “having an animal can give meaning to life, especially if you are alone, and there is much research that indicates that giving meaning to life protects mental and brain health.”
According to Ciyong Lu, the fact that having an animal can help older people to do more physical activity may also play a role, especially if it is a dog; can help reduce stress and anxiety; and it can help you sleep better “if you take the dog for a walk before going to bed, which can have a relaxing effect.”