Pets improve cognitive health and reduce the risk of disability

Pets are good for health, especially for the elderly, as suggested by two new studies, which indicate that living with an animal is associated with less deterioration of cognition and having a dog with less risk of suffering a disability.

The first of the studies, of an observational type and published by Plos, looked at 11,233 Japanese between the ages of 65 and 84 to indicate that those with a dog were approximately half as likely to suffer from a disability as those who had never owned a dog. .

However, there was no difference in risk for cat owners, says research from the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Japan. To better understand the relationship between a pet and disability risk, the team took data on the ownership of dogs and cats between June 2016 and January 2020.

The lower chance of having a disability remained even after taking into account sociodemographic and health factors that might influence disability risk, such as marital status, history of chronic disease, or time spent outdoors.

However, dog or cat ownership was not associated with a lower risk of death from any cause.

The second study suggests that owning a pet, such as a dog or cat, especially for more than five years, may be linked to slower cognitive decline in older adults.

The still preliminary research will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology to be held in April in Seattle (USA).

Study leader Tiffany Braley of the University of Michigan recalled that previous research has suggested that the human-animal bond may have benefits such as lowering blood pressure and stress, and this new work points to that “a pet can also protect against cognitive decline.”

The team analyzed data from 1,369 adults with a mean age of 65 and normal cognitive abilities. Of these, 53% had pets, and 32% had lived with them for five years or more.

Participants took tests such as subtraction, number counting or word recall to establish a score from zero to 27 points, and the researchers estimated associations between years of pet ownership and cognitive function.

Over six years, cognitive scores declined at a slower rate in pet owners, a difference that was greater among those with long-term pet owners.

“Since stress can negatively affect cognitive function, the possible stress-buffering effects of pet ownership could be a plausible reason for our findings,” Braley said.

A companion animal can also increase physical activity, “which could benefit cognitive health”, although the expert considered that further research is necessary to confirm these data and identify the underlying mechanisms of this association.