Publicação
Companion animals of older adults: comparison of aspects of psychological well-being
| Resumo: | Companion animals play an increasingly important role in the lives of their owners. Although some literature on the topic has already been published, results are limited and inconsistent. Changes in an older adult’s environment, such as a new animal companion, considering their current level of intrinsic capacity, can benefit them. Therefore, this study aims to compare companion animal owners (CO), non-companion animal owners (NO) and recent companion animal owners (RCO) in terms of perceived dependence, levels of loneliness, activities of daily living, depression, life satisfaction and social isolation, also considering sociodemographic variables. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study was carried out, which is part of the project “Validação da Escala ALONE para pessoas Idosas Portuguesas residentes na comunidade”. The convenience sample includes 277 participants and the questionnaire used includes: sociodemographic questionnaire; questions about companion animals; ALONE Scale, UCLA-16 Loneliness Scale, Social Isolation Scale (EIS), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS); Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15); Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL); Fear of Dependence Scale. Data analysis involved descriptive, inferential and correlational statistics. The main results indicate that those who have companion animals (CO) tend to live in rural areas, in houses. Recent companion animal owners (RCO) tend to live in an urban context. Regarding the assessment of the self-perceived degree of loneliness, the NO group has a higher self-perception of loneliness (3.52) when compared to CO (3.38) and RCO (3.23). Loneliness, assessed by ULCA-16, shows results that indicate greater loneliness for the RCO group than for the CO and NO groups. The affinity subscale also shows significantly higher scores (p = 0.028), demonstrating a high lack of affinity for the RCO group (9.26) compared to the CO (8.17) and NO (7.91) groups. No other significant differences were found in the Social Isolation Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Fear of Dependence Scale, the ALONE Scale and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL). It is concluded that housing conditions, self-perception of loneliness and the lack of affinity in emotional relationships are important characteristics to evaluate when the objective is to study older adults who have companion animals, given the differences between groups. |
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| Autores principais: | Santos, Nicole de Araújo |
| Assunto: | Companion animal Older adults Social isolation Loneliness Depression Satisfaction with life Activities of daily living |
| Ano: | 2024 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Aveiro |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | RIA - Repositório Institucional da Universidade de Aveiro |
| Resumo: | Companion animals play an increasingly important role in the lives of their owners. Although some literature on the topic has already been published, results are limited and inconsistent. Changes in an older adult’s environment, such as a new animal companion, considering their current level of intrinsic capacity, can benefit them. Therefore, this study aims to compare companion animal owners (CO), non-companion animal owners (NO) and recent companion animal owners (RCO) in terms of perceived dependence, levels of loneliness, activities of daily living, depression, life satisfaction and social isolation, also considering sociodemographic variables. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study was carried out, which is part of the project “Validação da Escala ALONE para pessoas Idosas Portuguesas residentes na comunidade”. The convenience sample includes 277 participants and the questionnaire used includes: sociodemographic questionnaire; questions about companion animals; ALONE Scale, UCLA-16 Loneliness Scale, Social Isolation Scale (EIS), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS); Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15); Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL); Fear of Dependence Scale. Data analysis involved descriptive, inferential and correlational statistics. The main results indicate that those who have companion animals (CO) tend to live in rural areas, in houses. Recent companion animal owners (RCO) tend to live in an urban context. Regarding the assessment of the self-perceived degree of loneliness, the NO group has a higher self-perception of loneliness (3.52) when compared to CO (3.38) and RCO (3.23). Loneliness, assessed by ULCA-16, shows results that indicate greater loneliness for the RCO group than for the CO and NO groups. The affinity subscale also shows significantly higher scores (p = 0.028), demonstrating a high lack of affinity for the RCO group (9.26) compared to the CO (8.17) and NO (7.91) groups. No other significant differences were found in the Social Isolation Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Fear of Dependence Scale, the ALONE Scale and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL). It is concluded that housing conditions, self-perception of loneliness and the lack of affinity in emotional relationships are important characteristics to evaluate when the objective is to study older adults who have companion animals, given the differences between groups. |
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