Animal-assisted activity among patients with cancer: effects on mood, fatigue, self-perceived health, and sense of coherence.
PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To identify to what extent an animal-assisted activity (i.e., visits with a dog) affects the mood, self-perceived health, and sense of coherence among patients undergoing radiation therapy. DESIGN: Pretest/post-test between and within groups. SETTING: Radiation oncology units of...
| Published in: | Oncology Nursing Forum Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 225 - 233 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | clinical trial research tables/charts Journal Article |
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Oncology Nursing Society
Mar2008
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=105888326&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 105888326 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 0190535X 4F0 jtl: Oncology Nursing Forum issn: 0190535X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2008 vid: 35 iid: 2 pid: 12496 pub: Oncology Nursing Society place: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 105888326 105888326 2009860122 10.1188/08.ONF.225-232 NLM18321834 105888326 ppf: 225 ppct: 8 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Animal-assisted activity among patients with cancer: effects on mood, fatigue, self-perceived health, and sense of coherence. aug: au: Johnson RA Meadows RL Haubner JS Sevedge K affil: Sinclair School of Nursing and Research Center for Human Animal Interaction in College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA. rajohnson@missouri.edu sug: subj: Affect Cancer Fatigue Cancer Patients Health Pet Therapy Radiotherapy Adult Affect Evaluation Aged Anxiety Chi Square Test Clinical Trials Depression Descriptive Statistics Dogs Female Fisher's Exact Test Funding Source Health Status Indicators Hospital Units Inpatients Kruskal-Wallis Test Male Middle Age Midwestern United States Patient Attitudes Evaluation Pretest-Posttest Design Prospective Studies Psychological Tests Questionnaires Random Assignment Reading Thematic Analysis Visitors to Patients Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test Human Adult: 19-44 years Aged: 65+ years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Female Male ab: PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To identify to what extent an animal-assisted activity (i.e., visits with a dog) affects the mood, self-perceived health, and sense of coherence among patients undergoing radiation therapy. DESIGN: Pretest/post-test between and within groups. SETTING: Radiation oncology units of two hospitals in a mid-sized, midwestern city. SAMPLE: 30 adult patients undergoing nonpalliative radiation therapy. METHODS: After giving informed consent, participants were randomly assigned to receive 12 dog visits, 12 human visits, or 12 quiet reading sessions over a four-week period. FINDINGS: No statistically significant differences were found; however, compared with others their age, patients receiving dog visits viewed their health as improved over the four-week period. Participants described each of the three activities as beneficial. The study is primarily useful as a basis for planning additional research. CONCLUSIONS: The study warrants replication with a larger sample to determine applicability of animal-assisted activity in patients with cancer who are undergoing radiation therapy. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Patients may want and express benefit from animal-assisted activity dog visits, but the outcomes of the visits may not be measureable. Nurses should assess to what extent patients believe that such visits are beneficial by asking them. The visits may be valued by patients as helping to relieve their anxiety and as distractions from their disease and therapy. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: clinical trial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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