Pet Your Stress Away Study (PYSA)

December 5, 2017 updated by: Washington State University
The purpose of this study is to determine whether an animal visitation programs on college campuses are effective in the treatment of college student stress reduction during preparation for final examinations.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

247

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Undergraduate status

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Stress reduction method
Participants randomized into the PYSA group engaged in a 10 minute direct interaction with the animals (dogs and cats) of the Pet Your Stress Away program
Behavioral: Animal assisted activity
Allowed to interact (e.g. talking, petting, scratching, feeding treats, playing with) live animals
Placebo Comparator: Control
Participants randomized into the Control group watched a 10 minute slide show of dog and cat photos
Behavioral: Animal photos
A 10 minute, silent, PowerPoint slide show of a variety of dogs and cats
No Intervention: Non-treatment
Participants randomized into the No-treatment group silently waited for 10 minutes without engaging in any physical or electronic social interactions.
Placebo Comparator: Observation
Participants randomized into the observation group observed 10 minutes of others in the general PYSA program petting cats and dogs, while they 'waited in line' for there turn.
Behavioral: Observing human-animal interaction
Participants watched others participate in petting dogs and cats, while they waited in line for 10 minutes. Participants did not physically touch any animals during this time.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in physiological stress measured via salivary cortisol
Time Frame: On the day of program participation: Once immediately upon waking up, and immediately before and after participation in the assigned 10 minute intervention
Salivary cortisol was measured three times on the day of program participation: immediately upon waking, and immediately before and after participation in the assigned 10 minute intervention
On the day of program participation: Once immediately upon waking up, and immediately before and after participation in the assigned 10 minute intervention
Change in momentary emotion using the experience sampling method questionnaire
Time Frame: Momentary emotion was measured twice, immediately before and after participation in the assigned 10 minute intervention
Momentary emotion was measured twice, immediately before and after participation in the assigned 10 minute intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in physiological stress measured via salivary Alpha-amylase
Time Frame: On the day of program participation: Once immediately upon waking up, and immediately before and after participation in the assigned 10 minute intervention
Salivary alpha-amylase was measured three times on the day of program participation: immediately upon waking, and immediately before and after participation in the assigned 10 minute intervention
On the day of program participation: Once immediately upon waking up, and immediately before and after participation in the assigned 10 minute intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Washington State University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Patricia Pendry, PhD, Washington State University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

April 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 12, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 27, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

May 3, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 7, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 5, 2017

Last Verified

December 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 13711

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Stress, Psychological

Clinical Trials on Animal assisted activity

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Angola

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe