Is having a dog the key to being healthy in old age?

walk-1385880_1280

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scientists have found that owning a dog and taking them out for walks is beneficial to staying healthy in your later years, reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer and even dementia.

The study involved 3,123 people between the ages of 49 to 91 in the long-running EPIC Norfolk cohort study, in which the participants wore a pedometer round their waist that measured physical activity over seven consecutive days during waking hours.

Using the 30 minutes the studies participants would of spent sitting down each day, they found that the greatest benefits were during the cold winter months, where regular dog walkers did more exercise through walking their dogs when the temperatures dropped below 10 Celsius, than the petless participants during the summer months!

On the winter days that were wetter and shorter on daylight hours, all participants of the study tended to be less active, understandably, but dog owners still managed to get outside with their four-legged friend and get some fresh air.

Almost 18% of the studies participants said they owned a dog, and two-thirds walked it at least once a day, so were classified as regular dog walkers.

All of the people involved spent an average of around 11 hours every day sitting, and tended to be less active when it rained, was cold and the days were shorter, but during cold wet winters exercise levels of dog owners were still typically 20% higher.

Lead project professor Andy Jones, of the University of East Anglia, said it suggests dog ownership or community dog walking schemes could form part of ‘exercise on prescription’, saying:

“We were amazed to find dog walkers were on average more physically active and spent less time sitting on the coldest, wettest, and darkest days than non-dog owners were on long, sunny, and warm summer days.

“The size of the difference we observed between these groups was much larger than we typically find for interventions such as group physical activity sessions that are often used to help people remain active.”

Less than half of older British elders hit the recommended weekly 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity target, and with research showing that regular brisk walks are not only good for mental health but physical well-being as well, as it boosts blood flow to the brain.

Lead author Dr Yu-Tzu Wu added:

“We know physical activity levels decline as we age but we’re less sure about the most effective things we can do to help people maintain their activity as they get older.

“We found dog walkers were much more physically active and spent less time sitting overall. We expected this. But when we looked at how the amount of physical activity participants undertook each day varied by weather conditions we were really surprised at the size of the differences between those who walked dogs and the rest of the study participants.”

The study showed that walking a dog was one of the most effective ways to beat physical and mental decline in later life with the study also finding that dog owners were sitting down on average 30 minutes less per day compared to those without a dog.

Prof Jones concluded:

“Physical activity interventions typically try and support people to be active by focusing on the benefits to themselves but dog walking is also driven by the needs of the animal.

“Being driven by something other than our own needs might be a really potent motivator and we need to find ways of tapping into it when designing exercise interventions in the future.”

These results follow a similar study by Glasgow Caledonian University last month that found ‘pensioners who take their four legged friends out daily walk an extra 22 minutes per day compared to those who don’t own a pet.’

The Scottish team also said that GPs should suggest and encourage older people to get a dog or share one to encourage them to walk more, even if the dog follows patiently behind our high spec mobility scooter!

Share this page....Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedIn