Evaluation of Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Elderly with Senile Dementia in a Day Care Program

• Published in: Nihon Rōnen Igakkai zasshi Vol. 38; no. 5; pp. 659 - 664
• Main Authors: Kanamori, Masao, Suzuki, Mizue, Yamamoto, Kiyomi, Kanda, Masahiro, Matsui, Yumi, Kozima, Emi, Takeuchi, Shihomi, Oshiro, Hajime
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan The Japan Geriatrics Society 2001
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - nursing; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Animal-assisted therapy; Animals; Animals, Domestic; Day care; Female; Humans; Male; Senile Dementia elderly
• ISSN: 0300-9173
• DOI: 10.3143/geriatrics.38.659

We conducted animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for the elderly with senile dementia in a day care center. AAT was performed between July 27 and October 12, 1999 for a total of six biweekly sessions. The AAT group consisted of 7 subjects; 5 with senile dementia of Alzheimer's type (SDAT) and 2 with vascular dementia (VD). The control group was 20 elderly subjects (7 SDAT, 13 VD). The results were as follows: Comparing between MMS scores at the baseline and those three months later, the average score on MMS before AAT (baseline) was 11.43 (±9.00), and that three months later was 12.29 (±9.69). In the AAT group, the average baseline NADL score was 28.43 (±14.00) and that after ATT was 29.57 (±14.47). In the AAT group, the average baseline score on Behave-AD was 11.14 (±4.85), and that three months after AAT was 7.29 (±7.11) (p<0.05). In the control group, the average baseline score was 5.45 (±3.27) and that three month later was 5.63 (±3.59). However, the results of eight subscales of communication behavior three months later were significantly low comparing to those at the baseline in the control group. The evaluation of CgA, which was a mental stress index, showed a decreasing tendency in the AAT group. Our findings suggested we should use several evaluation methods for evaluation of the changes of patients receiving AAT.