Journal of Ageing and Longevity

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

"This study evaluated the feasibility of recruiting hospitalized older adults into a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing an animal-assisted intervention (AAI) involving visits from therapy dogs with an active control (conversation with a volunteer) and treatment as usual (TU) for addressing health and mental health outcomes... This study explored the difficulties inherent in recruiting medically ill, hospitalized older adults for an RCT of hospital-based therapy dog visits."

Townsend, L., Gee, N. R., Friedmann, E., Mueller, M. K., & Barker, S. B. (2024). Recruitment feasibility for a randomized controlled pilot study of animal-assisted intervention for hospitalized older adults. Journal of Ageing and Longevity, 4(4), 404-416. https://doi.org/10.3390/jal4040029

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Friday, November 1, 2024

"Oxytocin pathways are hypothesized to play important roles in human-animal interactions and may contribute to some benefits of these interspecific social relationships. We explored the effects of naturalistic interactions between children and dogs on oxytocin release in both species, as well as associations between methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTRm), social behavior, and oxytocin response in this context."

Gnanadesikan, G. E., King, K., Elizabeth, C., Flyer, A. C., Ossello, G., Smith, P., Steklis, N. G., Steklis, H. D., Carter, C. S., Connelly, J. J., Barnett, M., Gee, N., Tecot, S., & MacLean, E. (2024). Effects of human-animal interaction on salivary and urinary oxytocin in children and dogs. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2024.107147

Anthrozoös

Friday, September 27, 2024

"Pet ownership is associated with reduced deterioration in physical and cognitive function as older adults age... We examined the relationship of pet, dog, and cat attachment to changes in physical and cognitive function among 214 pet-owning, generally healthy, community-dwelling adults aged 50–100 years (M = 68.0, SD = 7.8) from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA)."

Friedmann, E., Gee, N. R., Simonsick, E. M., Kitner-Triolo, M. H., Resnick, B., Gurlu, M., Shim, S., & Adesanya, I. (2024). Pet Attachment and Maintenance of Physical and Cognitive Function in Community-Residing Older Adults: Evidence From the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). Anthrozoös, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2024.2395125

Innovation in Aging

Monday, September 16, 2024

"Loneliness is linked to significant health threats and is potentially more dangerous than obesity; it affects as many as 29% of noninstitutionalized older adults... Emerging evidence suggests that companion animals provide a number of health and well-being benefits and that interacting with a trained therapy dog may reduce loneliness."

Gee, N. R., Townsend, T., Friedmann, E., Barker, S., Mueller, M. (2024). A pilot randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of a therapy dog intervention on loneliness in hospitalized older adults. Innovation in Aging, 8(11). https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igae085

BMC Pediatrics

Friday, September 13, 2024

"Research into the impact of social relationships on childhood and adolescent health and wellbeing has been largely limited to children’s relationships with other humans, while studies into the impact of pet ownership are sparse and have generally not adjusted for potential confounders. This study aimed to investigate the association between pet ownership and a range of developmental outcomes in childhood and adolescence."

Purewal, R., Christley, R., Kordas, K., Joinson, C., Meints, K., Gee, N. R., & Westgarth, C. (2024). Companion animals and child development outcomes: Longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of a UK birth cohort study. BMC Pediatrics, 24(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12887-024-05049-7