Study confirms that some seniors feel much less lonely after spending time alone with a dog than they do when they visit with a dog and other people.
Dr. William Banks A new Saint Louis University study shows there is some truth in the old cliché that describes a dog as man's best friend.  "Or at least a less aggravating friend," said study author William A. Banks, M.D. (pictured at left), professor of geriatrics in the department of internal medicine and professor of pharmacological and physiological sciences at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Nursing home residents feel much less lonely after spending time alone with a dog than they do when they visit with a dog and other people. "It was a strange finding," said Banks, who also is a staff physician at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Saint Louis. "We had thought that the dog acts as a social lubricant and increases the interaction between the residents. We expected the group dog visits were going to work better, but they didn't. The residents found a little quiet time with the pooch is a lot nicer than spending time with a dog and other people," he said.

Thirty-seven nursing home residents who scored high on a loneliness scale said they wanted to receive weekly, 30-minute visits from dogs. Half of them spent time alone with the dog, and the other half spent time with one to three other nursing home residents and the dog. While both groups felt less lonely, the group that had one-on-one quality time with the dog experienced a much more significant decrease in loneliness after five to six weeks of visits.

The main way pets reduce loneliness in nursing homes is simply by being with people, not by enhancing socialization between people, for instance, by giving nursing home residents something to talk about.

"There is no need for a dog to be a social lubricant or icebreaker in a nursing home. Residents live with each other, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with each other, play bingo with each other," Banks says. "The study also found that the loneliest individuals benefited the most from visits with dogs."

Source: Saint Louis University