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

Owning a pet doesn't seem to slow down the ageing process after all, according to scientists.

A new study, published in The BMJ, shows that pet owners appear 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, and with around half of British households owning a pet, it could be concluded that many people believe interaction with animals is life enhancing.

Previous studies have suggested there are potential positive and negative health consequences of pet ownership.

These include the grief and distress felt after a pet's death, alongside the benefits of improved psychological health from a sense of companionship provided by pets, or increased physical activity from regular walks with a dog that could influence weight regulation and heart health.

With more than 10 per cent of older adults indicating that pet ownership is their major source of companionship, scientists said there is a need to examine if pets influence biomarkers of healthy ageing.

A team of researchers from University College London (UCL) and Cambridge University set out to examine the relationships in older people.

They used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) - an ongoing study of a representative sample of men and women who, when recruited in 2002-03, were aged 50 or more and living in England.

The researchers analysed figures from more than 8,700 adults with an average age of 67.

A third of participants owned a pet, with 18 per cent owning a dog, 12 per cent a cat, and three per cent another animal.

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

And the results held true after separate analyses of male and female pet owners. The researchers pointed out that it was an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect.

But study co-author Professor Richard Watt, of UCL, said: "At least in the present cohort study of older adults in England, animal companionship seems to confer essentially no relation with standard physical and psychological biomarkers of ageing."