Objective: This study evaluated the impact of pet ownership on Parkinson’s disease (PD) severity and related symptoms.

Background: PD is a common neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor dysfunction, cognitive decline, gastrointestinal alterations, and mood disorders such as anxiety and apathy. While pets are known to confer cardiovascular and mental health benefits, the effect of pet ownership on PD-related symptoms has previously remained unexplored.

Method: 101 control (mean age: 63 years, M:F= 0.6:1) and 218 participants with PD (mean age: 65 years, M:F= 1.7:1, mean disease duration 6.4 years) were surveyed for lifetime pet ownership. Participants were categorized by the type of pet (dog, cat, other) and the time period of the most recent ownership (never, N=21; <18 years, N=43; adult, N=146; current, N=112), and were then correlated with both 16S fecal microbiome sequencing data and the severity of disease (H&Y Scale), mood disorders, and motor symptoms (UPDRS).

Results: Previous pet ownership of dogs, cats, or other animals did not correlate with overall rates of PD in the cohort. After controlling for disease duration, the H&Y score of the female participants with PD declined linearly as the period of last pet ownership became more recent (p=0.003), reflecting an overall reduction of 0.9 points. Similarly, female participants with PD who had ever owned a pet scored 51-55% lower on the Apathy Scale compared to those who had never owned a pet, regardless of the period of pet ownership (p=0.003-0.005). The PD-associated bacterium Akkermansia was over-represented in lifetime pet owners in the combined cohort after controlling for PD status and sex (p=0.03), but was not significant after FDR correction.

Conclusion: This study introduces pet ownership as a potential variable of interest in female PD non-motor symptoms and suggests that pets may confer mental and physical benefits long after the period of ownership has ended. Pet ownership may serve as a drug-free intervention that improves the burden of non-motor PD symptoms and improves patient quality of life. The sex-specificity of these effects will require further investigation.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/pet-ownership-associated-with-lower-apathy-and-motor-severity-in-female-participants-with-pd/