Clinical trial NCT06722144: Animal-assisted Therapy Improves Cognitive and Emotion in Nursing Home Residents
Official title: Animal-assisted Therapy Improves Cognitive and Emotion in Nursing Home Residents
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Supportive Care
Treatment
Prevention
Keywords: behavioral and psychological symptoms
animal assisted therapy
cognition
Lead sponsor: Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan
Sponsor class: OTHER_GOV
First posted: 2024-12-09
Enrollment: 44
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Nursing home residents were dementia and older.
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: 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.

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.

Eligibility criteria: 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.

Primary outcomes:
measure: The Short Portable mental state questionnaire (SPMSQ)
timeFrame: 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 outcomes:
measure: The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15)
timeFrame: 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.
measure: The Barthel Index
timeFrame: 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.
measure: The Brief Symptom Rating Scale(BSRS-5)
timeFrame: 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.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Taipei
country: Taiwan
facility: Taipei Veterans General Hospital
Study officials:
affiliation: Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan
name: Su-Jen Wang
role: STUDY_CHAIR
References:
citation: Lai NM, Chang SMW, Ng SS, Tan SL, Chaiyakunapruk N, Stanaway F. Animal-assisted therapy for dementia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Nov 25;2019(11):CD013243. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013243.pub2.
citation: Chen H, Wang Y, Zhang M, Wang N, Li Y, Liu Y. Effects of animal-assisted therapy on patients with dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Psychiatry Res. 2022 Aug;314:114619. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114619. Epub 2022 May 10.