A study of 16,582 people aged 50 and older published May 30, 2025 found that owning dogs or cats was associated with slower age-related declines in certain cognitive abilities. Longitudinal relationships between pet ownership and cognitive …

Researchers reported that long-term dog ownership correlated with a slower decline in memory, while cat ownership was tied to a slower decline in verbal fluency — the ability to easily and rapidly produce words. The study focused primarily on dog and cat owners; evidence about other types of pets, such as fish or birds, is limited. A 2019 University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging reported that a majority of adults ages 50 to 80 owned a pet; the exact percentage and age band should be checked against the original poll before citing.

The findings were summarized in a Harvard Health piece that placed the new results alongside earlier work on pets and health. The original analysis was published in a peer-reviewed journal and is available on the publisher’s website, along with lay summaries on health-news sites.

Those patterns differed by pet type. The study’s authors reported that people who owned dogs demonstrated a slower erosion of memory tests over time compared with participants who didn’t own pets. Cat owners, meanwhile, showed a slower drop in performance on tests of verbal fluency, a cognitive skill tied to word retrieval and expression. This distinction suggests that the type of pet owned may influence the specific cognitive benefits experienced, reinforcing the idea that not all pets provide equal health advantages.

The Harvard Women’s Health Watch lists Maureen Salamon as Executive Editor and Toni Golen, MD as Editor in Chief and an Editorial Advisory Board member of Harvard Health Publishing; the site’s coverage of the study emphasized the potential connections between pet ownership and broader health measures. “The findings add to earlier research suggesting that pet ownership is associated with an array of physical and mental health benefits, including lower blood pressure and a greater sense of well-being,” said Toni Golen, MD, Editor in Chief. Multiple studies have examined pet ownership and mental health, with mixed findings; some report that interactions with pets may be linked to reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, while others do not find consistent benefits. Pet Ownership Linked to Depression

The analysis drew on data from more than sixteen thousand older adults, following cognitive trajectories across several domains. The differential results by species — memory for dog owners and verbal fluency for cat owners — underline that any link between companion animals and brain health may not be uniform across types of cognition or pets. Encouragingly, other evidence-based methods for promoting cognitive health in older adults include regular physical activity and cognitive training, suggesting a multifaceted approach to wellness in later years.

Harvard Health’s coverage framed the study as one more piece in a growing body of research examining how everyday lifestyle factors relate to cognitive aging. Because this research is observational, it can only demonstrate associations between pet ownership and cognitive outcomes, not prove causation.

For clinicians, caregivers, and older adults weighing lifestyle choices, the study offers data points rather than definitive prescriptions. The researchers’ comparisons between pet types — dogs and cats versus fish and birds — suggest that the physical and social aspects of interacting with certain companion animals could align with measures of memory and verbal skills, though the paper itself reports associations rather than direct proof of cause and effect.

The Harvard Health summary and the Scientific Reports article together give readers access to both an interpretation aimed at the public and the study’s detailed findings for those who want to review the research directly.

Source

Original reporting: view the original article.