Want your elderly parents to stay active? Get them a pet dog

A new study, conducted in the UK, found that owning a dog can help the elderly get more exercise.

Getting a pet seems to be a win-win situation for the entire family. While having an animal to look after teaches children empathy and responsibility, it is just as beneficial for grandparents. A new study, conducted in the UK, found that owning a dog can help the elderly get more exercise.

The study, carried out by researchers from Glasgow Caledonian University and WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition, looked at the levels of physical activity and sedentary time for 43 dog-owners and a control group of 43 non-dog-owners, all aged 65 or over.

Participants wore an activity monitor continuously for three one-week periods, and researchers monitored the time spent walking moderately, time spent standing, and total time spent sitting, as well as the number of times people sat down and how long they sat down for.

Although the results showed that there was no difference between the two groups in the total time spent sitting down, the team found that dog owners were more active than the control group, and showed fewer continuous periods of sitting down.

The research did have some limitations, including that as an observational study it cannot determine cause and effect – that is, are more active people more likely to own dogs, or is it owning a dog that makes people more active?

However, the study did uses objective measures of collecting data on physical activity and sedentary behaviour, unlike previous research that has mainly relied on self-reports from participants, which is subject to error.

The team now believes that health professionals could encourage older adults to become dog owners or to share care of a dog to help motivate them to be more physically active.

The findings can be found online published in the journal BMC Public Health.

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