Place-contingent effects of dog ownership on physical activity, mental well-being, and loneliness among older adults in a high-density Japanese city

How the neighborhood built environment supports healthy aging is central to planning for aging societies, yet how dog walking – an everyday behavior – interacts with the built environment remains poorly understood in high-density Asian cities. In a cross-sectional study of 1,000 community-dwelling adults aged 60 and over in Osaka, Japan (stratified 1:1 by dog ownership; analytic sample n = 799), we assessed physical activity (IPAQ), mental well-being (WHO-5), and loneliness (3-item UCLA scale), and tested interactions of dog ownership and household composition with GIS-derived neighborhood indicators (intersection density, green-space ratio, population density). Dog owners showed higher odds of meeting physical-activity guidelines (adjusted odds ratio 1.82, 95% CI 1.33–2.50), an effect confined to regular walkers (2.10) and absent among non-walking owners (0.97); in a four-group comparison, this advantage tracked walking behavior rather than ownership itself. Whereas non-owners’ activity rose with intersection density, owners maintained activity even in low-walkability areas, suggesting apparent environmental compensation. High-density neighborhoods were positively associated with well-being among non-owners only (interaction p = .020), and loneliness was lower among owners only for solo-living older adults (interaction p = .008). Dog walking thus exerts place-contingent effects, generating hypotheses for age-friendly neighborhood planning in high-density Asian cities.