Animal-assisted Therapy Improves Cognitive and Emotion in Nursing Home Residents

December 4, 2024 updated by: Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan
More than 80% of the residents of the investigator's nursing home are dementia, who are often mentally and emotionally unstable. The staff need to spend time helping to eliminate problems. The investigator assume that non-drug intervention measures can be added, such as the Animal-assisted Therapy (AAT). The hypothesis for ATT is expected to improve the mental and emotional inappropriate manifestations of dementia, reduce interfering behaviors, improve the quality of life, reduce the use of inappropriate mental drugs, and expect residents to delay the degradation of physiological functions.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Nursing homes in the investigator's country accept dementia residents usually. The dementia residents often suffer from mental and emotional problems. Then they used drugs to improve the mental and emotional conditions. There were many studies about non-drug treatments ,such as: gardening, nostalgia, pets, and other interventions were improved for the mental and emotional to dementia residents.Well-trained therapy dogs exhibit the behavior that human patients construe as friendly and welcoming.AAT dogs are also required to possess a calm temperament for accommodating the contact with unfamiliar clients while they serve as a source of comfort. In domestic observational studies, non-pharmaceutical interventions for people with dementia who have activities and the hypothesis for ATT can improve the quality of care for dementia, reduce the use of mentally inappropriate drugs, and delay the degree of degeneration. Recent evidence has shown that nursing institutions with dementia arranged weekly activities with AAT for a period of 6 months. Significant improvement was in social interaction, emotional expression, and behavioral and psychological symptoms.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

44

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Taiwan
      • Taipei, Taiwan, 11217
        • Taipei Veterans General Hospital

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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Residents of long-term care homes
  • No fear or allergy to dogs
  • Wheelchair accessible persons
  • Able to communicate in Mandarin and Taiwanese
  • Agree to sign the subject consent form

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non-residents of nursing homes
  • Fear and allergy to dogs
  • Bedridden and wheelchair users
  • Do not agree to sign the subject consent form

Note: Although many nursing home residents have symptoms of dementia, many have not been diagnosed by a doctor, so dementia and other related diseases cannot be included in the inclusion or exclusion criteria.

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: emotion status
Geriatric Depression Scale and Short Form Health Scale(GDS-15)
Behavioral: Animal-assisted Therapy
By the professor leader makes social interaction, and helping residents with rehabilitation through the Doctor dogs.
Other Names:
  • pet therapy
  • the doctor dog
Experimental: cognition status
Short Portable mental state questionnaire(SPMSQ)
Behavioral: Animal-assisted Therapy
By the professor leader makes social interaction, and helping residents with rehabilitation through the Doctor dogs.
Other Names:
  • pet therapy
  • the doctor dog
Experimental: feeling healthy
Brief Symptom Rating Scale(BSRS-5)
Behavioral: Animal-assisted Therapy
By the professor leader makes social interaction, and helping residents with rehabilitation through the Doctor dogs.
Other Names:
  • pet therapy
  • the doctor dog
Experimental: activities of daily living status
Barthel index scale
Behavioral: Animal-assisted Therapy
By the professor leader makes social interaction, and helping residents with rehabilitation through the Doctor dogs.
Other Names:
  • pet therapy
  • the doctor dog

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The Short Portable mental state questionnaire (SPMSQ)
Time Frame: The experimental and control groups were subjected to a pre-test after they were recruited. There are 12 times AAT, once a week.The AAT did in experimental group,then both groups, there are three post-tests were taken 8th、12th and 16th weeks.
This scale was adopted in this study to assess the participants' cognitive functions.
The experimental and control groups were subjected to a pre-test after they were recruited. There are 12 times AAT, once a week.The AAT did in experimental group,then both groups, there are three post-tests were taken 8th、12th and 16th weeks.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15)
Time Frame: The experimental and control groups were subjected to a pre-test after they were recruited. There are 12 times AAT, once a week.The AAT did in experimental group,then both groups, there are three post-tests were taken 8th、12th and 16th weeks.
The two scales were adopted in this study to assess the participants' depressive and the participants' emotion state
The experimental and control groups were subjected to a pre-test after they were recruited. There are 12 times AAT, once a week.The AAT did in experimental group,then both groups, there are three post-tests were taken 8th、12th and 16th weeks.
The Barthel Index
Time Frame: The experimental and control groups were subjected to a pre-test after they were recruited. There are 12 times AAT, once a week.The AAT did in experimental group,then both groups, there are three post-tests were taken 8th、12th and 16th weeks.
This index was adopted in this study to assess the participants' physical mobility and function.
The experimental and control groups were subjected to a pre-test after they were recruited. There are 12 times AAT, once a week.The AAT did in experimental group,then both groups, there are three post-tests were taken 8th、12th and 16th weeks.
The Brief Symptom Rating Scale(BSRS-5)
Time Frame: The experimental and control groups were subjected to a pre-test after they were recruited. There are 12 times AAT, once a week.The AAT did in experimental group,then both groups, there are three post-tests were taken 8th、12th and 16th weeks.
The participants' feeling healthy
The experimental and control groups were subjected to a pre-test after they were recruited. There are 12 times AAT, once a week.The AAT did in experimental group,then both groups, there are three post-tests were taken 8th、12th and 16th weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Su-Jen Wang, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

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 (Actual)

March 14, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 10, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

November 20, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 30, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 4, 2024

First Posted (Estimated)

December 9, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

December 9, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 4, 2024

Last Verified

December 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2024-02-014C

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

We don't have a plan to make individual participant data (IPD) available to other researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

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.

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