Puppy guilt trips help keep the elderly active
Tuesday, 01 August, 2017
It鈥檚 hard to ignore a dog that wants to go for a walk 鈥� and for the elderly, giving into those 鈥榩uppy eyes鈥櫬爄s good for their own health, too, suggesting community dog walking schemes could benefit this age group.
Taking the dog out for a walk boosts older people鈥檚 physical activity levels 鈥� whatever the weather 鈥� and seems to lop an average of 30 minutes off their daily sitting time, suggests research published online in the聽.
In light of their findings, the researchers suggest that dog ownership or community schemes for dog walking could form part of exercise on prescription for this age group.
As adults age, they tend to become less active;聽in the UK alone it is estimated that less than half of older adults engage in the recommended weekly quota of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity.
To find out if dog walking might motivate older adults to become more active, the researchers used data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).
Between September 2006 and December 2011, a sample of 3123 adults aged between 49 and 91 (average 69.5), were asked to wear a pedometer for seven consecutive days during waking hours聽and provide information on regular physical activity.
They were also asked whether they owned a dog聽and, if so, how often they took it for a walk.
Almost one in five of the sample (18%) said they owned a dog, and two thirds said they walked their dog at least once a day; one聽third said they walked their dogs less than this.
All in all, dog owners who regularly walked their pets were more active and less sedentary, including in poor weather conditions.
鈥淥ur findings hint at the important additional role of extrinsic motivation聽鈥斅爄n this case, the need for the dog to be exercised even in poor weather,鈥� the researchers wrote.
They suggested that their findings 鈥渕ay have considerable potential to support the maintenance of physical activity in older adults and could form part of exercise on prescription schemes鈥�.
They acknowledged that older adults鈥� health or living conditions might limit their opportunities to walk a dog to boost their physical activity levels.
They also suggested: 鈥淚n cases where dog ownership is not possible but where the functional status allows, dog walking opportunities for older adults who do not own a dog could be organised by local community organisations or charities, and dog walking groups may provide wider wellbeing benefits associated with increased social contact.鈥�
Borrow my Doggy, a nationwide UK network聽which provides regular group dog walks for people who aren鈥檛 dog owners, might be one such option, they suggested.
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