Pets may benefit people with dementia, new research shows
A new study has illustrated that owning a pet may be beneficial for people living with dementia, with dogs being especially effective.
The research found that having a pet is related to having a slower decline in wellbeing, satisfaction with life and functional ability, and those who owned a dog also demonstrated a slower decline in their cognition compared to those without a dog. This suggests that owning a pet could help people with dementia remain independent at home for longer.
Dementia is a general term that refers to a decline in memory, communication, reasoning, and other cognitive abilities that is significant enough to disrupt everyday life. There are many different types of dementia, with the condition affecting 1 in 11 people over the age of 65 in the UK, according to the NHS.
The study, lead authored by Dr Carol Opdebeeck, used data from the IDEAL Programme, a large UK cohort study of people living with dementia. The study included 1532 people with mild to moderate dementia at study entry, and investigated whether having a pet was related to different changes in quality of life, satisfaction with life, wellbeing, cognitive function, depression and loneliness compared to not having a pet.
Dr Opdebeeck said: “My interviews showed that pets can potentially bring benefits and possibly improve quality of life. Many people I interviewed for other dementia studies and whose houses I went to had pets, and they talked about their pets. I also chatted to many carers about the role that animals play in supporting a person with dementia, through companionship and encouragement to exercise.
“There was someone who was about five years into their diagnosis who still fed the dog, walked the dog and had this sense of purpose. The routine was obviously beneficial to him. All this evidence was just anecdotal though, and I could not find much literature on this, so I became interested in studying it myself.”
The range of animals Dr Opdebeeck came across included fish, cats, birds, guinea pigs, tortoises, hamsters, rabbits, ferrets and horses, but the research focused primarily on people with dogs.
Dr Opdebeeck said: “We looked at dogs specifically because in healthy older people, dogs seem to show a particular benefit. We found that owners of dogs had less decline that those with any form of pet, particularly in functional ability and cognition.”
Contributions of having a pet to living well with dementia over time: longitudinal findings from the IDEAL cohort was published in the Aging & Mental Health journal.
