ABSTRACT

Animal-assisted interventions have been used to improve human psychological and physiological wellbeing. Research studies on the effects of therapy dogs have found that the companionship of a dog significantly decreases stress levels in many different situations, including health care facilities. We investigated the effects of therapy dogs on adults’ anxiety before going into day surgery. Participants were patients from a Surgical Ambulatory Care Unit. Four conditions were compared to examine the effects of dogs on the patients’ stress: a therapy dog and handler team, a stuffed dog and handler, a person without a dog, or no visitor. Before and after these visits, the heart rate and blood pressure of the patient was taken. Patients also completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory short form (STAI) and a brief demographics survey. No change was found in blood pressure or heart rate in any of the conditions. Based on the STAI scores, we found a statistically significant reduction in anxiety for any intervention over no visit at all. We also found that, although there was no statistical difference between the effects of the real dog and the stuffed toy dog, the stuffed dog condition lowered anxiety enough to show a statistically significant reduction compared with no visitor. Our research is one of the few studies to compare a live dog to a similar size and breed stuffed toy dog. Our results indicate that, in the absence of a real dog, a stuffed toy dog may have equivalent therapeutic value. Our study provides further knowledge on the effects of dog-assisted interventions on medical patients and indicates avenues for future research.

摘要

动物辅助干预已被用于改善人类心理和生理健康。对治疗犬影响的研究发现，在许多不同情况下，包括医疗机构，狗的陪伴会显着降低压力水平。我们在进行日间手术之前调查了治疗犬对成人焦虑的影响。参与者是来自外科门诊护理病房的患者。对四种情况进行了比较，以检查狗对患者压力的影响：治疗犬和训犬师团队、毛绒犬和训犬师、没有狗的人或没有访客。在这些访问之前和之后，测量了患者的心率和血压。患者还完成了状态-特质焦虑量表简表 (STAI) 和简短的人口统计调查。在任何情况下都没有发现血压或心率发生变化。根据 STAI 分数，我们发现与根本不就诊相比，任何干预的焦虑都有统计学意义的降低。我们还发现，虽然真狗和毛绒玩具狗的影响没有统计学差异，但毛绒狗状况降低了足够的焦虑，与没有访客相比，有统计学意义的显着降低。我们的研究是为数不多的将活狗与类似大小和品种的毛绒玩具狗进行比较的研究之一。我们的结果表明，在没有真正的狗的情况下，毛绒玩具狗可能具有同等的治疗价值。我们的研究提供了关于狗辅助干预对医疗患者的影响的进一步知识，并为未来的研究指明了途径。