Our cognitive abilities – thinking abilities that include memory, language and attention – deteriorate with age and scientists haven’t yet found a way to stop this decline.
There are things you can do to slow it down, however, and recent scientific studies suggest that having a pet might be one of them.
For instance, in one 2022 study, US researchers tested the cognitive abilities of 1,369 older people who had health insurance policies with Medicare over the course of six years.
About half the participants had pets and the researchers found that these people’s cognitive abilities declined more gradually than non-pet owners.
Within the pet-owning group, those who were longer-term pet owners performed better in tests.
More recently, data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), which has followed the ageing process in the over 50s for more than 25 years, has helped scientists further explore the beneficial effects of pets on our brains.
Since 2010, the ELSA study has included cognitive tests as well as survey questions about pet ownership, giving researchers data from over 7,945 older people to draw on.
According to findings published last year, having a pet did slow cognitive decline on average. However, the results showed that having a pet only really benefited those who lived alone.
Cognitive decline is faster and dementia risk is higher in those who live alone, but it seems pet ownership may be able to rebalance this offset.
Of course, there’s still lots left to learn about brain health and ageing, but getting a pet may be a straightforward solution to staying sharper into your senior years.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by George Grainger, Truro) 'Can owning a pet really slow cognitive decline?'
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