111review of Animal Assisted Therapy With Visiting Dogs in Dementia

Experiences and effectiveness of canine-assisted interventions on the health and well-being of older people residing in long-term care

“…Shen and colleagues suggest AAIs are highly accepted interventions across different populations, conditions and settings 6 with the most common species utilized being canines [6][7][8] The holistic nature of AAIs suggests potential benefits may extend across the physical, emotional and social spectrum however results are varied. 6,7,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Nimer and Lundahl showed AAIs produced moderate effect sizes to improve emotional well-being, behavioural problems, medical difficulties as well as autism spectrum symptoms. 8 In this meta-analysis, dogs were consistently associated with moderate effect sizes which did not occur in the other animals examined.…”

“…21 Animal-assisted interventions may be able to play a role in improving health and well-being of residents for example by reducing depression and improving quality of life. 7 This type of intervention seems particularly relevant to older people living in long-term care facilities as human animalinteractions are not dependent on a high level of cognitive function 22 nor high physical and functioning ability. 23 Further Maclean suggests that people with mental health issues that may be reluctant to use conventional treatment may prefer alternative treatments such as AAIs.…”

“…29 A preliminary search of PubMed, CINAHL, PROSPERO, The JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports and The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews indicated a number of single method reviews have been conducted since the original reviews were published however most have not focused specifically on this population (older people), the setting (long-term care) and the intervention (canines). 6,7,9,10,[12][13][14][15]17,18 Cipriani et al (2013) did examine the effect of canine-assisted therapies (CAT) on older adults residing in long-term care however the search was undertaken up until 2010. 11 Out of the 19 studies included in the review, twelve demonstrated statistically significant improvement in outcomes for residents.…”