The Effect of Therapy Dogs on Preoperative Anxiety
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2162283 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Preston Foerder (0000-0002-4281-0656, Department of Psychology, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA), Morgan Royer (0000-0003-3111-5268, Department of Psychology, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 659-670 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthrozoös (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0892-7936 • E-ISSN: 1753-0377 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08927936.2021.1914440 |
| OpenAlex | W2905005005 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 26 |
Humans and animals have been companions for ages but that relationship and its benefits have only begun to be explored. Recently, animal assisted therapies have been used to improve both psychological and physiological wellbeing. One of the most popular therapies uses dogs. There are many research studies on the effects of therapy dogs on children and adults with results that have found that the companionship of a dog significantly decreases their stress levels in many different situations, including health care facilities. I investigated the effects of therapy dogs on adults’ anxiety before going into day surgery. Participants were patients from the Erlanger Baroness Surgical Ambulatory Care Unit (SACU). Four conditions were compared to examine the effects of dogs on the patients’ stress: therapy dog and handler team, stuffed dog and handler, a person only, or no person or dog. 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. I found no change in blood pressure or heart rate in any of the conditions. I did find a statistically significant difference between the no person/no dog condition and any other intervention for the STAI scores, indicating that any intervention reduced anxiety. I also found that the stuffed dog significantly reduced anxiety as compared to no visitor. These results have implications for the effects of dog therapy on medical patients and provide avenues for future research
Ambulatory · Animal welfare · Animal-assisted therapy · Anxiety · Blood pressure · Demographics · Heart rate · HUBzero · Pet therapy · Physical therapy · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · State-Trait Anxiety Inventory · Visitor pattern · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Medicine · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Nursing · Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies · Demography · Internal Medicine · Surgery
Stressful Life Events
Social Interaction and Blood Pressure
The development of a six‐item short‐form of the state scale of the Spielberger State—Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)
Strategies to improve the evidence base of animal-assisted interventions
Current challenges to research on animal-assisted interventions
A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials of Animal-Assisted Therapy on Psychosocial Outcomes
The Effect of Therapy Dogs on Exam Stress and Memory
Construct Validity of Animal-Assisted Therapy and Activities
The Effect of a Real Dog, Toy Dog and Friendly Person on Insecurely Attached Children During a Stressful Task
Preschoolers Make Fewer Errors on an Object Categorization Task in the Presence of a Dog
A Randomized Cross-over Exploratory Study of the Effect of Visiting Therapy Dogs on College Student Stress Before Final Exams
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |