Biopsychosocial Factors and Cognitive Function in Cat Ownership and Attachment in Community-dwelling Older Adults

Abstract

Few studies consider the health benefits of pet ownership from a biopsychosocial perspective, and a paucity of studies investigate cat ownership. The current study was designed to determine if psychosocial factors (stress, loneliness, and depression), biological levels of stress and inflammation (salivary cortisol, interleukin-1␤, and C-reactive protein [CRP]), and cognitive function were associated with companion cat ownership/attachment in community-dwelling older adults. Community-dwelling older adults (n = 96, mean age = 76.6 years) who either owned a cat and no dog (n = 41) or owned neither a cat nor a dog (n = 55) completed questionnaires (Perceived Stress Scale, Revised-UCLA Loneliness Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale) and provided saliva specimens which were assayed for stress and inflammatory biomarkers. The majority of participants screened positive for mild cognitive impairment, reported low levels of stress, loneliness, and depression, and the biomarkers reflected fairly low levels of stress and inflammation. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that psychosocial factors, salivary biomarkers, and cognitive function were not significantly associated with cat ownership. Age was the only significant predictor of cat ownership (OR = 0.92, p < 0.01) with the odds of cat ownership decreasing by 8.3% per year of advancing age. On average, cat owners were "somewhat attached" to their cats; however, 26% were "strongly attached" to their cats. Correlation analyses revealed the level of attachment to cats was not associated with study outcomes. These

Family Member, Best Friend, Child or ‘Just’ a Pet, Owners’ Relationship Perceptions and Consequences for Their Cats

“…As is common in animal-related research, women were over-represented in our sample, despite actively encouraging men to participate. This over-representation of women in our study, combined with the following gender differences, show that our results might be less applicable to male cat owners: women have a more positive attitude towards animals [ 111 ], seem to attach more to animals [ 6 , 63 , 112 , 113 ], have more empathy for living beings [ 114 ], and more often attribute traits such as ‘communicative’ and ‘empathetic’ to cats [ 82 ] (this study, results not shown). Third, although participants lived all over the Netherlands, people from the northern part of the country were slightly over-represented.…”

“…Previously, owners’ relationship satisfaction and level of attachment were found to be associated with an owner’s social (living) situation [ 25 , 59 , 60 ], gender [ 28 , 61 , 62 ], age [ 28 , 63 ], and educational level [ 28 ]. However, the social function of the cat, and hence the relationship perception of the owner, might not only be associated with characteristics of the owner but also by characteristics of the cat.…”

The State of Animal-Assisted Interventions: Addressing the Contemporary Issues That Will Shape the Future

“…While some of the earliest uses of animals to improve the health of people were farm animals, modern studies most often use dogs, then companion horses [70,71,72], and, to a lesser extent, cats [43,73]. Within the last three decades, other species have been used, including fish [23,62,74,75], birds [76], guinea pigs [47], and reptiles [77].…”

Pet ownership, loneliness, and social isolation: a systematic review

“…Notwithstanding this, some other criteria were hardly met by any study (e.g., sufficient timeframe, exposure(s) assessed more than once over time). All in all, the study quality was satisfactory: one-half of the studies [ 7 , 17 , 21 , 22 , 24 , 39 , 43 – 48 ] was rated as “good”, the other half [ 18 – 20 , 23 , 36 – 38 , 49 – 53 ] as “fair”.…”

“…(If not prospective should be answered as ‘no’, even is exposure predated outcome) (7) Was the timeframe sufficient so that one could reasonably expect to see an association between exposure and outcome if it existed? Antonacopoulos (2010) [ 50 ] Yes Yes Not reported Yes No No (cross-sectional) No (cross-sectional) Antonacopoulos (2017) [ 49 ] Yes Yes Not reported Yes No Yes Yes Bennett (2015) [ 38 ] Yes Yes Not reported Yes No No (cross-sectional) No (cross-sectional) Black (2012) [ 36 ] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No (cross-sectional) No (cross-sectional) Branson (2019) [ 43 ] Yes Yes Not reported Yes Yes No (cross-sectional) No (cross-sectional) Carr (2021) [ 22 ] Yes Yes Not reported Yes No No (simultaneously) Yes Carr (2020) [ 44 ] Yes Yes …”