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This was just a correlational study, so why do they assume pet ownership is causal? (Paper is paywalled so maybe someone else can see their reasoning).

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>Sustained ownership of a pet could mitigate cognitive disparities in older adults. Further studies are needed to examine potential causal pathways, including physical activity and stress buffering, versus selection effects.

I would assume that people who have better cognitive abilities would be more likely to successfully get, care for, feed, and provide vet care for a pet than a person who is in some stage of cognitive decline, ie pet ownership is a marker of better cognition and not a cause of it.

That's right, I already can't take care of myself at 38, so I don't know why I would add a pet to the problem. In 10 years I might be a hoarder living in his own feces so why would I add those of a dog?

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Near the end of the article they suggest more study is required, and they state specifically that one shouldn't come to conclusions about cause and effect. They further state that it's possible some people are already in a good mental place, and thus are better able to look after pets.

I know anecdotal accounts are nearly worthless when it comes to making conclusions, but I can tell you as one who is near the age group involved, that I just got a kitten this past summer. I have never laughed or smiled so much in a long time. And the stark differences between my mental health pre-and-post kitty are profound. I had no idea how dark my life had gotten until he came along.

The article mentions isolation as being a contributing factor to dementia, and so this makes me wonder if the fact that you are now once again responsible for a life plays a contributing factor. Human beings need connection, whether it's person or pet. Having that positive connection has been shown to be helpful for one's health in other ways. Wouldn't surprise me to learn that pet ownership can prevent dementia as well. But…we need more data.

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What's funny to me is, replace pet with unexpected child, and you've got a new moral policy for parenthood.

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Also anecdotal - a stray cat adopted my aging parents, 10 years after they swore they wouldn't get another pet. The difference in their happiness and mental health post-adoption is astounding.

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Also being happy in general usually leads to better things, including health. I don't know many people who decide to get pets despite hating animals/pets, I'd imagine most people buy pets for comfort/company, or happiness.

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I think maybe having a pet makes you have to use more of your brain compared to not having a pet because you have another life to take care of, so in terms of “if you don’t use it, you lose it”, becomes kind of relevant.

Edit: fixed grammar

I’m guessing it pulls people out of their own heads for a bit.

Is this a classic case of “correlation, not causation”?

That doesn't mean the study has to be thrown out just because of that

I live in a rural area a vet is 150 miles away. One way. So I don't think it's responsible to have a pet so far from care. What if something bad happened? There was a vet that came up a couple of times a week, but she had a baby and can't do it anymore. If there is anyone out there who knows a vet that wants to live in rural Nevada, please get in touch. There's work here.

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It may be a classic case of unidirectional causation not simply bidirectional correlation.

We don’t know yet. If you think there is anything here indicating it’s not causal - go ahead and articulate it

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Similar situation with an aging relative of mine. It was definitely noticeable

I'm also thinking about dogs forcing people out for walks, and exercise is great for arterial health in the brain!

This is standard these days to state the possibility of a casual relationship we don’t know is there, put that out there in the news so it gets cemented as truth in people’s minds, and say follow up studies are needed, but then never do them.

You can learn pet first aid and cpr. Plenty of people live much further than 150 miles from a vet and have pets.

This is also true. After struggling financially with one child for so long, we could not opt to have more

"The study also found that those who owned a pet for a period above five years showed indicators of greater physical activity, lower body mass
index, and lower incidence of diabetes and hypertension compared to
participants who owned a pet for a shorter period or did not own one. "

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You would think so, but watch any episode of hoarders and you'll see almost all of them are pet owners. My guess is they don't feel accepted or welcome by people and turn to pets instead.

I would like to have a cat but I live in an small apartment and barely look after myself.

Can you really not take care of yourself?

Get a copraphagic dog. Problem solved?

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Animals can't be owned, they're not objects like a chair.

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Dang that’s a cute cat

Pets are expensive af. Having money is connected to better health, news at 10!

It’s a weird one, because I can’t take care of myself either but you bet your ass I did everything for my cats and dogs. Having someone to take care of and look forward to is so amazing. I haven’t owned a pet in years now and those have been my hardest years when it comes to dealing with struggles. Animals are amazing at providing comfort.

Pets cost money. Money is good for your health

I think it’s more likely that it goes both ways. Pets require you to do things that are good for you that you otherwise might not do. If you’re depressed or achy or feeling down and tempted to stay in bed all day that’s just not going to happen when you have a hungry demanding cat or a dog who needs to go out. Walks, even short walks, are good for you. I’ve taken my dog on so many walks I did not at all want to go on because it was chilly or rainy or dark or I was tired or whatever. Sometimes I wish I had started tracking how many steps I’ve taken with my dog to see how many miles of walking I do with him that I otherwise wouldn’t have done. I bet it would be a lot more than I realize. Maybe I’ll track that in 2023 just for fun!

Well, do the research then...

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They also keep you from being lonely, which is never good for your mental health either.

>Education has been found to reduce the likelihood of developing dementia and a number of other factors have been found to have the same effect. These factors include physical inactivity, depression, social isolation, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and chronic stress.

>Pet ownership is one aspect of lifestyle that is known to influence many health and disease outcomes via emotional support and stress buffering.

I’d bet this applies only if you LIKE pets in the first place. If you fear or resent the pet, I’d bet the added stress is a NEGATIVE for cognitive health.

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It literally says linked to in the title, not causes.

I don't know. My mom decided, after her last cat died, that she didn't want to risk having a pet outlive her. It's not that she doesn't like cats, she just doesn't want someone else to possibly end up inheriting one when they don't want it.

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This is one of the main reasons I’d like to get a dog with my partner in the next couple years. It’s very hard for me to motivate myself to take regular walks/leave my house/be in the sun outdoors/touch grass. Having a creature who will be guaranteed to poop in my house if I don’t take him outside and around the block is amazing motivation. I’m currently a pet sitter on the side and damn do I feel better mentally and physically when I watch dogs who need many walks throughout the day.

She could always adopt an older cat, right?

selfless and a real animal lover. Maybe a middle aged animal (rescue?) is a good compromise.

Or help foster kittens for 1-2 months at a time.

If you’re in the position to do so, I’d reassure her that you’d give her pet a loving home if she passed. That you wouldn’t feel forced to take them and they’d be wanted. My thing would be how hard it is for pets to lose their owner. It’s hard to explain to them why you’re suddenly gone one day. Sometimes they can smell that you’re dieing, if you are sick and die at home on hospice. I’m not sure if they know the smell of death if you die suddenly at home or not. That would be the biggest reason I’d be really hesitant to adopt a new pet. Especially a young one. Maybe talk her into adopting an older one. They need loving homes too for their final couple of years!

Its like having your own little gym bae

One of the reasons why I've yet to fulfill my childhood dream of having a dog is that during my worst depressive years, there were moments where I couldn't even care for myself. Bringing another life form into my life, I don't know if that would have improved my life at the time or make it worse, as in now I have responsibility to take care of this pet. Can I do it? I don't think I could have.

I can attest to that. You get an hour of exercise daily. Just make sure to teach your dog to poop/pee early in the walk and then walk at a good pace.

Yep, a ton of factors. People keep trying to push dogs on the physically ill where I am but it wouldn't help for me, and neither would a home bound pet coz I can barely look after myself. Its not motivation I lack, its the ability to do it safely.

Also once you have a pet and let it down by not being cognatively capable of ensuring it stays healthy hopefully services, people around you and common sense stop you getting another pet. (Sadly not always the case though).

Also that many of them simply don't consider the pets health or wellbeing.

There is nothing in the title that suggests causation.

Google fit is a fun little app to have. I sometimes go out of my way to achieve the daily goals if im out and about and have the time.

She probably also doesn't want to experience the pain of her pet dying and getting an elderly cat that'll die very close to your own death is hard to pull off.

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One conclusion would be that people who own pets tend to be more nurturing, people who are nurturing tend to be well liked and want to be part of a community, people who take an active part in their community tend to exercise more and have lower blood pressure, healthy blood pressure levels are shown to lower cognitive impairment and the risk of developing dementia.

In other words, this is a very broad network of factors.

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My cats force me to have SOME routine (feed on time, clean litter every day, provide attention, etc). Routine is good for the brain.

I'm in my late 60s now, so this study is intriguing.

Back in 2020, when my whole world shut down to just our house, we ended up with two rescue kittens (one just showed up on our porch, the other was starving in the alley behind our house). They were such a bright light during that time, which was stressful even for me, a confirmed misanthrope.

Those two kittens brought the total count to 6 cats (plus a dog), which is a stressor of another kind, but the constant interaction with other sentients beings is exercise in staying cogent and physically active.

Reasoning about cause and effect when it comes to this kind of thing is really hard, and frankly, a lot of people in epidemiology and especially journalists just aren't that good at it. Researchers get fooled by reverse causation and confounders all the time, and it's very easy for fallacious conclusions and spurious findings to get laundered into "fact" through repeated citation. This is especially likely to happen with feel-good stuff like "pets prevent Alzheimer's" or "wine prevents heart disease."

Maybe dog ownership improves health by promoting exercise, but there's very unlikely to be any real direct, clinically important biological effect of warm fuzzy feelings or reduced loneliness or whatever.

I have no idea how other people avoid having pets, because all our cats are rescues who showed up uninvited.

Pets make life better.

I would love that.

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The PsyPost article doesn't mention and I don't have access to the journal, so perhaps someone can tell me: Does the study ask whether there's a difference between owning a cat, dog, bird, or other kind of pet? Having a dog would also lead to more walking compared to owning a cat, so I'm curious if that's playing a mediating role in protecting cognitive health.

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Perhaps it's time to get an axolotl.

That's true, but at the same time it can be a risky bet.

I'm still alive and relatively healthy, so I can to a large extent, but like for many people very simple daily life stuff can be too much sometimes.

“While the longitudinal associations in our study are compelling, the design of the study did not allow us to demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship,” Braley explained. “Additional prospective work that includes information on strength of the human-animal bond and its effect on cognitive trajectories, and incorporates study of biological mechanisms that could mediate this relationship, are still needed.” (Braley is Tiffany J. Braley--one of the authors.)

This can be an interesting finding and a prompt for further research, but I absolutely agree with a caution about turning correlation into causation. The burden of proof should be on the affirmative.

Also, it's difficult to have a well-informed debate because the link is to an article about the paper--not the paper itself.

Yes, there are tons of pets..just figured they made the drive. Thanks for the great idea. My little dog got kicked in the head by a wild burro and lost an eye, but I lived 25 miles from the first vet. She saved him. So I'm just afraid of stuff like that.