Bakgrund: Genom tusentals år har människor och sällskapsdjur levt sida vid sida. Tidigare studier har fokuserat på de fysiska, psykiska och sociala effekterna djur har på människor. Syfte: Syftet med denna litteratur studie är att undersöka vilken betydelse sällskapsdjur har i omvårdnaden av den äldre människan. Metod: Till denna litteraturstudie samlades data in från databaserna Cinahl och Swemed. I studien användes metodprocessens åtta steg enligt Polit och Beck (2004). Tre kategorier framkom ur analysen. Dessa tre kategorier var: sällskapsdjurs betydelse för den äldre människan, sällskapsdjur som terapi och problem som kan uppstå för den äldre människan som vill umgås med djur. Resultat: Resultaten visar att sällskapsdjur har en viktig roll för många äldre människor. För äldre människor kan djur vara den viktigaste relationen och ibland den enda nära relationen de har. Djurterapi visar sig vara ett gott komplement till andra behandlingsmetoder för den äldre människan. Konklusion: Äldre människor mår bra när de umgås med djur. Djur ger en trevlig atmosfär i sin omgivning. / Background: Through thousands of year people and domestic animal have been living side by side. Earlier studies have focused on the physiological, psychological and sociological effects pets have on humans. Aim: The aim of this literature review was to examine which meaning pets have in the caring of the elderly people. Method: For this literature review, data was collected from the databases Cinahl and Swemed. In the studie a method processing in eight steps according to Polit and Beck (2004) was used. During analyse three main categories appeared. These three categories were, pets meaning of the elderly people, pets as therapy and problems which can appear when elderly people want to socialize with pets. Result: The result showed that pets have an important role in the daily life of many elderly people. For the elderly people, pets can be the most important relation and sometimes the only close relation they have. Pet therapy indicates that it is a good complement to other treatment therapies for the elderly people. Conclusion: Elderly people feel good when they socialize with pets. Pets bring a nice atmosphere in their environment.

The perception of pets as ‘family members’ is an important area of research in the study of human-animal relationships. The objective of this thesis is to assess the ways in which pets are integrated into the home, and to explore how pet owners regard their dogs and cats within their constructed circles of kinship and social bonds. This research also examines a sample of attitudes toward some important issues with pet keeping, from what constitutes responsible pet guardianship to modern issues in animal welfare. Thirty-four participants were recruited, and data was collected through individual qualitative interviews. Data analysis shows the level of integration of the pet into the family has some correlations with the gender of the primary pet caretaker, and shows the impact of individual experiences of participants, particularly in childhood, which strongly influenced preferences of pet type, and their view of the role of animals in the home.

The perception of pets as ‘family members’ is an important area of research in the study of human-animal relationships. The objective of this thesis is to assess the ways in which pets are integrated into the home, and to explore how pet owners regard their dogs and cats within their constructed circles of kinship and social bonds. This research also examines a sample of attitudes toward some important issues with pet keeping, from what constitutes responsible pet guardianship to modern issues in animal welfare. Thirty-four participants were recruited, and data was collected through individual qualitative interviews. Data analysis shows the level of integration of the pet into the family has some correlations with the gender of the primary pet caretaker, and shows the impact of individual experiences of participants, particularly in childhood, which strongly influenced preferences of pet type, and their view of the role of animals in the home.

At two nursing homes for people with dementia a qualitative study was performed. The purpose was to investigate the therapy dog‟s meaning to people with dementia from their perspective. Two women and five men with dementia were interviewed, everyone being somewhere between 60 and 87 years of age. All but one had previously owned a dog at some point in their lives. From the content analysis four categories could be identified: activity, fellowship, friendship and without positive meaning. The therapy dog had different meanings to the different people. The therapy dog had a positive meaning to five of the interviewed participants. Most of the participants had a positive approach to the therapy dog. It was considered to be good company and a good friend, as well as something to play and interact with. Two of the participants did not consider the therapy dog to be of any particular meaning to them, one of them showing disinterest for the subject. Knowledge about attitude to and experience of dogs for persons with dementia during the healthy part of life is important in order to have a well-established therapy with therapy dogs. / På två vårdboenden för personer med demens genomfördes en kvalitativ studie, med syftet att ta reda på vilken betydelse vårdhunden hade för dem ur deras eget perspektiv. Två kvinnor och fem män med demens inkluderades och intervjuades. De var mellan 60 och 87 år. Alla utom en hade tidigare haft egen hund. Ur innehållsanalysen framkom fyra kategorier: aktivitet, gemenskap, kamratskap och utan positiv betydelse. Vårdhunden hade olika betydelse för olika informanter. Flertalet av de intervjuade hade en positiv inställning till vårdhunden. Den var ett sällskap, en god kamrat och man lekte/hade aktivitet tillsammans. Två av de intervjuade tyckte inte att vårdhunden hade någon positiv betydelse, varav en uttryckte ointresse för vårdhunden. Kunskap om inställning till och erfarenhet av hundar under den friska levnadstiden hos personer med demens är viktig för att de ska uppfatta vårdhunden och terapin som positiv.

Bakgrund: Studier har visat att äldre kan uppleva känslor av tristess och ensamhet på grund av minskat kontaktnät, vilket kan påverka deras välbefinnande och leda till ett ökat behov av naturligt vårdande. Sällskapsdjur har sedan hundratals år använts i syfte att ge en terapeutisk effekt hos människor och har visat sig medföra positiva förändringar fysiologiskt, men sällskapsdjur inom vård och äldreomsorg är omdiskuterat på grund av de hinder som kan finnas. Syfte: Syftet är att beskriva hur kontakten med sällskapsdjur kan påverka äldres välbefinnande. Metod: En litteraturstudie (Evans, 2002) med kvalitativ ansats har använts som analysmetod på tolv vetenskapliga artiklar, där teman och subteman identifierats och tolkats utifrån Erikssons vårdvetenskapliga teori om välbefinnande och naturligt vårdande. Resultat: Fem teman och nio subteman som beskriver hur äldres välbefinnande kunde påverkas av kontakten med ett sällskapsdjur identifierades. Sällskapsdjur kunde exempelvis bidra till en positiv förändring i vardagen, ge en känsla av gemenskap människor emellan samt få äldre att återskapa gamla minnen. Slutsatser: Kontakten med ett sällskapsdjur kan få äldre att uppleva välbefinnande och bidra till naturligt vårdande. De hinder som finns till att införa sällskapsdjur inom vård och omsorg bör ses i relation till den positiva effekt sällskapsdjur kan ha på individens välbefinnande. / Background: Research has shown that elderly might experience feelings of boredom and loneliness as a result of their decreasing social network, which might affect their well being and lead to an increasing need of natural caring. Pets have been used for hundreds of years in order to have a therapeutic effect on human beings and have been proven to lead to positive changes physiologically; however the use of pets within health care settings has been debated because of the different obstacles that exist. Aim: Our purpose is to describe how the contact with pets may affect elderly’s well being. Method: A systematic review (Evans, 2002) with a qualitative method was used on twelve scientific articles, where themes and subthemes were identified and interpreted using the nursing theorist Eriksson’s theory about well being and natural caring. Result: Five themes and nine subthemes which described how elderly’s well being might be affected by the contact with a pet were identified. Pets could for example give elderly a positive change in their daily life, a feeling of belongingness between people and make them recollect memories from the past. Conclusion: Contact with a pet may help elderly to experience well being and contribute to natural caring. The obstacles that exist against using pets within health care settings should be seen in relation to the positive effects pets may have on individual people’s well being.

Elderly people are at high risk for conditions associated with inactivity, and lack of motivation is an important factor contributing to this inactivity. It is believed that a dog can provide the necessary motivation to get a senior citizen up and moving because it needs attention as well as someone to feed it and take it for walks. The objective of this five-week prospective cohort study was to determine if registered therapy dogs made available for informal visits to a cohort of retirement community elderly would motivate the subjects to increase their activity levels by comparing the number of steps taken in the presence of the exposure (opportunity to visit with dog) versus steps taken when unexposed (no opportunity to visit with dog). A secondary objective was to measure possible improvements in mental and physical health scores over the course of the study. The steps were measured each week with a pedometer and the happiness and depression scores were obtained through a questionnaire given at the beginning and at the end of the study. Twenty subjects agreed to participate, and there was an increasing trend in the number of steps over calendar weeks, but not an increase with exposure level (number of dog-visits). Happiness (p = .53) and depression (p = .083) scores did not significantly change during the study. Increased step counts each week may have been associated with other motivating factors such as competition among residents and individual desire to achieve higher counts each week.

Research on exposure to animals and risk of type 1 diabetes (T1D) has had conflicting results with some researchers finding that animal exposure reduces the risk of T1D and others finding no association between animal exposure and T1D. Previously conducted studies on the association between animal exposure and T1D are case-control studies that have been limited by recall bias. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between early life animal exposure and the risk of persistent, confirmed islet autoantibodies (IA) and T1D diagnosis among an eligible cohort of genetically high T1D risk participants enrolled in the international prospective cohort study, The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY). It is hypothesized that children who are exposed to animals in early life will have a lower risk of developing IA and T1D than children who are not exposed to animals in early life. A total of 7,432 TEDDY participants were included in the study. The associations between early life animal exposure and the outcomes of interest were explored using Cox proportional hazards models. In order to control for confounding, a propensity score analysis was applied by three different methods: adjustment for the propensity score variable in the Cox proportional hazards model, stratification on propensity score groups, and propensity score pair matching. Early life animal exposure was not associated with diabetes autoimmunity or T1D onset in this genetically high T1D risk population. These findings were consistent across all three propensity score analysis methods and when directly adjusting for HLA type. The hypothesis that children who are exposed to animals in early life will have a lower risk of developing IA and T1D than children who are not exposed to animals in early life is not supported by this study. The results of this study suggest that there is no association between early life animal exposure and development of T1D. Performing this analysis again after longer follow-up has been completed for the study population is recommended as it may elucidate the effect of animal exposure on T1D and IA risk. Further studies are also needed on animal exposure and T1D in different types of environments (e.g., high residential density) and the effect of different types of animal exposures (e.g., species, duration) on T1D and IA risk. Additionally, studies on differences in perceptions of pets across countries could also aid the interpretation of studies on animal exposure and health outcomes.

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