Did daily dog walking buffer loneliness during the pandemic?

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Pet ownership can provide companionship and help people make social connections, which may be especially important for socially isolated older adults. Loneliness can harm health and wellbeing in later life, and many predicted that COVID-19 public safety measures would greatly increase loneliness, particularly among vulnerable groups such as older adults.

Researchers investigated whether dog walking buffered loneliness amid pandemic-related stressors. They obtained longitudinal survey data from a Florida community-based sample of 466 adults aged 60 and older in September 2018 and October 2020. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models, they tested the association between COVID-19’s social consequences and changes in loneliness, and whether dog walking buffered that relationship.

Greater social consequences of COVID-19 were associated with increases in loneliness. Walking a dog daily buffered that relationship. The researchers said the findings suggest potential therapeutic effects of dog walking for promoting mental health in older adults, particularly during stressful situations that heighten the risk of loneliness.