anthrozoology.org

May, C.

  Winefield HR.  Black A.  Chur-Hansen A.

Johnson, Rebecca A.  Rantz, Marilyn J.  McKenney, Charlotte A.  Cline, Krista M C.

Gerontological Nursing, Sinclair School of Nursing, Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

 rajohnson@missouri.edu Journal of Veterinary Medical Education.  35(4):511-3, 2008.

Students learn more effectively when they are actively engaged in the learning process. Therefore, case studies have become increasingly popular as a way to teach students about a representative subject. This article discusses the benefits of case studies, with a primary focus on how case studies can help veterinary medical students learn about the human-animal bond. The discussion is particularly aimed at veterinary medicine instructors and discusses how case studies can be used and why they are important. TigerPlace, a pet-friendly, innovative housing facility for older adults, is used as an example of a case study that can be used to teach about, and to study, the human-animal bond. In particular, the article addresses the special advantages of TigerPlace to students with respect to learning about older adults and the bond they have with their pets.

Hegedusch, E.; Hegedusch, L.;

Tiergestutzte Therapie bei Demenz. Schlutersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Hannover, Germany: 2007. 

Six chapters describe different aspects of dementia, human-animal interactions, studies on the effects of animals on people with cardiovascular diseases, psychosocial welfare and dementia, and animal-assisted therapies for people with dementia and the impact on caring arrangements

Journal of Veterinary Behaviour: Clinical Applications and Research

Volume 3, Issue 2, Pages 87-94 (March 2008)

 Elisabetta Piva, DVMab, Valentina Liverani, DVMc, Pier Attilio Accorsi, DVMd, Giuseppe Sarli, DVMe, Gualtiero Gandini, DVMf

This study evaluates whether a shelter dog could be rehomed successfully into a facility for people suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD). The goal was to assess the effect on animal welfare of this form of pet ownership and of individual sessions of animal assisted activity (AAA) with some pre-selected patients. After the enrollment of a suitable shelter dog, the dog was introduced gradually into the facility. Upon adoption, the dog's welfare was monitored during the first 6 months by integrating indirect assessment (18-item questionnaire) with direct observations of behavioral and clinical responses (31-item score system table), and with an assay of hormonal changes. Only descriptive statistics were done on the questionnaire data. The findings suggest a progressive positive integration into the new environment. The qualitative data using direct observations were analyzed with the Spearman Rank order correlation test. Some data showed significant variation during the period of observation, suggesting a gradual reduction of the dog's stress during AAA sessions. The hormonal trend, especially for cortisol measured in hair, seemed to correlate with the clinical and behavioral findings.

In the fast pace of modern life, humans are experiencing health challenges at an unprecedented rate. Disease as a consequence of lifestyle is now common and is predicted to steadily rise. Obesity, mental illness and physical inactivity are all creating an increasing burden on our economy. Turning this trend around will require new thinking.

Research in public health has shown that restoring our connections with each other and with our environment will have benefits for individual health and for the community as a whole.

We now know that some of the simplest pleasures in our lives are among the most important to our health and wellbeing. Walking in our neighbourhood, interacting with people and animals, enjoying the natural environment have all been shown to play a significant role in supporting physical and mental health.

Friedmann, E.; Thomas, S. A.; Cook, L. K.; Tsai, C. C.; Picot, S. J.; 

 Anthrozoos.  2007. 20: 1, 51-63

As the population ages and obesity increases, the number of older adult hypertensives is rising dramatically. Uncontrolled hypertension (HTN) increases, and reducing blood pressure (BP), lowers cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and renal morbidity and mortality. Cardiovascular reactivity, defined as exaggerated cardiovascular responses to various stressors, is associated with the development and progression of HTN and associated morbidity and mortality. Speaking is a social stressor, occurring frequently in daily life, that is accompanied by significant surges in BR. The current project was designed as a preliminary study to evaluate whether friendly dogs may be an effective intervention for moderating cardiovascular stress responses in older adult hypertensives. Cognitively intact, community-living older adults (n=11) with resting BPs in the pre- to mild hypertensive range (120-150/80-100 mmHg) participated in the study. The quiet-talk-quiet (QTQ) protocol was used to assess BP responses to speaking. The QTQ protocol, consisting of sitting silently for two minutes, talking for two minutes, and sitting silently for two minutes was repeated twice, once with an unfamiliar, friendly dog in the room, once without the dog. The dog was randomly assigned to be present either for the first or the second QTQ. An ANOVA or ANCOVA with repeated measures three-way interaction between dog presence (dog in, dog not in), activity (quiet, talk), and order (dog in first, no dog in first) was used to examine the moderating effect of the presence of the dog on cardiovascular reactivity to speaking; it was significant for diastolic BP (F(1,9)=12.8, p=0.006), and tended to be significant for systolic BP (F(1,8)=4.4, p=0.12). During speech, BP was (7/2 mmHg) lower when the dog was present than when it was not present. BP while sitting quietly did not differ according to the presence of a dog. Pets might provide a viable means of decreasing BP surges during stressful activities in older hypertensives.

Colombo, G.; Buono, M. dello; Smania, K.; Raviola, R.; Leo, D. de;Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands: 2006. 42: 2, 207-216. 44

The aim of this study was to assess whether a pet therapy program had a favorable effect on psychopathological status and perception of quality of life in cognitively unimpaired institutionalized elderly. Seven elderly rest homes in Veneto Region of Northern Italy participated in the project, which was conducted on 144 cognitively intact elderly residents (97 females and 47 males). The participants were randomly divided into three groups: 48 subjects were given a canary, 43 subjects were given a plant, and 53 subjects were given nothing. The observation period (t0-t1) lasted for 3 months. At time t0 and t1 participants were administered the mini mental state examination (MMSE) to assess their cognitive status, the LEIPAD II-Short Version (LEIPAD-SV), to gauge subjective perception of quality of life in the elderly, and the brief symptom inventory (BSI), for self-evaluation of the presence of psychopathological symptoms. At the end of the 3-month trial, tests were re-administered, without removing the experimental condition. Even if the group that received a plant seemed to benefit from the experience, they did not achieve the same positive results on BSI and quality of life subscales exhibited by the group that received a pet. This study reinforces the hypothesis that pet therapy may have a beneficial effect on the psychological well being of institutionalized elderly, in particular on aspects related to depressive symptoms and perception of quality of life.

Lawton, M. P.

Journal of Gerontology, v. 30, p. 85-9, 1975.

The 22-item Philadelphia Geriatric Center (PGC) Morale Scale was subjected to a series of principal component analyses utilizing different item pools and rotating differing numbers of factors. Subjects were 1086 tenants of federally-assisted housing for the elderly and older people living in the community. Results were compared with analyses of the PGC Scale done by Morris and Sherwood. Consideration of factors defined by the analyses suggested three consistently reproduced factors: Agitation, Attitude Toward Own Aging, and Lonely Dissatisfaction, utilizing 17 of the original items. These results were compared with other multi-dimensional measures of morale: the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale, and morale scales reported by Pierce and Clark, and Schooler. In addition to the dimensions derived from the current study related domains of self-rated health, social accessibility, generalized attitude toward aging, and positive affect were suggested as worthy of further exploration as dimensions of morale.