Animal therapy, technological interventions improved loneliness in older adults

Animal therapy and technological interventions in long-term care facilities were shown to improve loneliness in older adults, a systematic review published in JAMA Network Open showed.

Loneliness and social isolation are public health concerns faced by older adults due to their physical, cognitive and psychological changes that arise with aging. Both are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, Peter Hoang, MD, of the division of geriatric medicine at the University of Toronto, and colleagues reported.

Hoang and colleagues evaluated interventions that targeted older adults and were associated with a reduction in loneliness and social isolation. The researchers reviewed a total of 70 studies measuring loneliness and social isolation in adults aged 65 years and older.

The studies involved 8,259 participants, ranging in age from 55 to 100 years. Interventions assessed included animal therapy, psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, multicomponent, counseling, exercise, music therapy, occupational therapy, reminiscence therapy, social interventions and technological interventions.

Of those, animal therapy in long-term care had the largest effect size on loneliness reduction (–1.86; 95% CI, –3.14 to –0.59), followed by technological interventions in long-term care (–1.40; 95% CI, –2.37 to –0.44), Hoang and colleagues reported.

“In this study, animal therapy and technology in long-term care had large effect sizes, but also high heterogeneity, so the effect size’s magnitude should be interpreted with caution,” they wrote. “Future studies should consider measures of social isolation in long-term care and identify the contextual components that are associated with a reduction in loneliness.”