Companion animals: associations with social isolation, loneliness, and satisfaction with life in portuguese community-dwelling older adults

Abstract

Companion animals play an increasingly important role in people’s lives. However, research on how they affect community-dwelling older adults remains scarce and there are inconsistent results. This study examined the impact of companion animals on loneliness, social isolation, depressive symptomatology, satisfaction with life, and satisfaction with social support in Portuguese community-dwelling older adults. This cross-sectional descriptive and correlational questionnaire study involved 250 participants (≥ 65 years old). The questionnaire comprised sociodemographic questions; questions about companion animals; self-perception of loneliness; the Social Isolation Scale; Lubben’s Brief Social Network Scale; the Satisfaction with Life Scale; the Satisfaction with Social Support Scale; and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Descriptive, inferential, and correlational analyses and logistic regression were conducted. Caregivers of companion animals, compared with non-caregivers, tended to live in rural areas (OR = 1), in houses (OR = 2.465), and with extended families (OR = 4.540). No significant differences between caregivers and non-caregivers were found for social isolation, loneliness, satisfaction with social support, and satisfaction with life. However, people with depressive symptoms were 1.7 times more likely to have companion animals than those with no depressive symptoms (p = 0.032). Companion animals, which included some farm animals, provided a high degree of companionship (8.39 ± 1.94, on a scale of 0–10), and this differed significantly between the groups having “only dogs,” “only cats,” “dogs and cats,” and “neither dogs nor cats” (H = 13.279, p = 0.004). Having “only dogs” (8.81) and “both dogs and cats” (9.22) provided the highest degree of companionship when compared with “only cats” (7.86) and “neither dogs nor cats” (7.67). Companion animals did not seem to be instrumental in terms of social interaction and satisfaction with life. Therefore, companion animals are important in providing companionship for older people. Future research should look more closely at the bond between older caregivers and companion animals.