Pet Ownership Could Slow Cognitive Decline in Older Adults Living Alone

Owning a pet could help to slow verbal memory, verbal fluency, and composite verbal cognition decline in older adults living on their own, according to recent prospective cohort study results published in JAMA Network Open. 

Researchers used data from waves 5 (June 2010 to July 2011) to 9 (June 2018 to July 2019) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to examine the association between pet ownership and cognitive decline in adults 50 years and older. Data were analyzed from April 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023.

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A total of 7945 participants with a mean age of 66.3 years and 56% women, were included in the study. Pet ownership was associated with slower rates of decline in composite verbal cognition (β = 0.008 [95% CI, 0.002-0.014] SD/y), verbal memory (β = 0.006 [95% CI, 0.001-0.012] SD/y), and verbal fluency (β = 0.007 [95% CI, 0.001-0.013] SD/y) in all participants. Stratified analyses showed that, in older adults living alone, pet ownership further slowed rates of decline in composite verbal cognition (β = 0.023 [95% CI, 0.011-0.035] SD/y), verbal memory (β = 0.021 [95% CI, 0.008-0.034] SD/y), and verbal fluency (β = 0.018 [95% CI, 0.005-0.030] SD/y) but not among those living with others.

“Pet ownership completely offset the associations of living alone with declining rates in verbal memory, verbal fluency, and composite verbal cognition,” researchers concluded. “Our findings provide innovative insights for developing public health policies to slow cognitive decline in older adults living alone.”

Reference 
Li Y, Wang W, Zhu L, et al. Pet ownership, living alone, and cognitive decline among adults 50 years and older. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(12). doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.49241