The Daily Telegraph

Owning a pet isn’t the secret to staying young, say scientists

- By Daily Telegraph Reporter

OWNING a pet does not seem to slow down the ageing process after all, according to scientists.

A new study, published in The BMJ, showed that pet owners appeared to have the same physical and psychologi­cal health levels as non-pet owners.

There are long-standing claims that animal companions­hip might be linked to human health, with around half of British households owning a pet. With more than 10 per cent of older adults saying pet ownership was their major source of companions­hip, University College London (UCL) and Cambridge University examined if pets influenced the biomarkers of healthy ageing.

Using the English Longitudin­al Study of Ageing (ELSA), they analysed data from more than 8,700 adults with an average age of 67. A third owned a pet – 18 per cent dogs, 12 per cent cats, and three per cent another animal.

After they took into account variables such as smoking and drinking, they found no evidence of a strong associatio­n of any type of pet ownership with walking speed, lung function, standing up, grip strength, leg raises, balance, nor three blood inflammato­ry markers, memory, or depression.

The researcher­s pointed out that as it was an observatio­nal study, no firm conclusion­s could be drawn about cause and effect. But Prof Richard Watt, of UCL, said: “At least in the present cohort study … animal companions­hip seems to confer essentiall­y no relation with standard physical and psychologi­cal biomarkers of ageing.”

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