Background:Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) first came about in the US in the 1960s and was primarily used in child psychiatry. Since then it has evolved and spread to other countries and to other disciplines in health care. In Sweden AAI is used in some institutions for people living with dementia and is a popular feature among the residents. The purpose of the study is to examine if there are reasons for the use of AAI as a non-pharmacological treatment to promote the quality of life of people living with dementia. Methods: The study is a systematic literature review. 13 articles were used to answer the purpose. Results: The compilation of the studies shows that several positive effects appear when using AAI of people with dementia. This applies to several elements of the concept of quality of life which are improved. However, the number of people participating in the studies are small, and many of the results are not statistically significant. Conclusion: AAI appears to be a very popular feature in the care of people with dementia and for those who enjoy being in the company of animals, it may be a way to raise the perceived quality of life. More research with larger groups of participants are needed to obtain more reliable results.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-311632 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Åhman, Angelica, Söderström, Louise |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för folkhälso- och vårdvetenskap, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för folkhälso- och vårdvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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