Abstract
Pet ownership has been associated with positive outcomes in many populations, yet the associations with physical and psychological wellbeing in people with dementia remain unclear. The current study used baseline data from 1,542 people living at home with mild-to-moderate dementia from the Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life (IDEAL) programme. Regression analyses investigated associations of pet ownership and pet care with self-reports of walking, loneliness, depression, and quality of life (QoL). After adjusting for covariates, having any pet was associated with higher likelihood of walking over 3 hr in the last week. Those with a dog and who were involved in its care were less likely to be lonely than those with no dog. Having any pet but no involvement in its care was associated with increased depression and decreased QoL compared with those without a pet. The key factor in the associations was involvement in the care of the pet by the person with dementia.
Highlights
In the United Kingdom there are approximately 850,000 people living with dementia, around two thirds of whom reside at home (Prince et al, 2014)
The overarching aim of the current study was to investigate whether having a pet, and the degree of involvement in its care, was associated with physical activity, loneliness, depression or quality of life (QoL) in people living with dementia
There was no significant difference in QoL scores in the adjusted models for those with or without a pet, those with a dog, or those involved in the pet’s care. This is the first study to our knowledge that has quantitatively investigated associations of self-reported pet ownership and pet care with loneliness, physical activity, depression, and QoL in a large cohort of people living with dementia
Summary
In the United Kingdom there are approximately 850,000 people living with dementia, around two thirds of whom reside at home (Prince et al, 2014). In the United States, approximately 80% of the 5.5 million people living with dementia reside at home (Lepore et al, 2017). Pet ownership may be one such activity and is common among the general population (Obradović et al, 2019; People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals [PDSA], 2019). Some studies have reported more equivocal results, for example, higher levels of depressive symptoms and loneliness in pet owners
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