Impact of animal-assisted interventions on cognitive impairment in the elderly:a systematic review
YANG Zijiang
KANG Hua
Abstract：Objective:To systematically review the impact of animal-assisted interventions on cognitive impairment in the elderly.Methods:Literature on the application of animal-assisted interventions to elderly patients with cognitive impairment was retrieved from CNKI,WanFang Database,VIP,PubMed,EMbase,the Cochorane Library,and Web of Science,from the establishment of databases to June 26,2023.Two researchers independently screened the literature and extracted relevant data.The Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan software.Results:A total of 9 relevant documents were included,involving 796 cases of elderly patients with cognitive impairment.Meta-analysis results showed that animal-assisted interventions could improve depressive symptoms(SMD=-1.21,95％CI-1.79--0.63,P＜0.000 1),agitation symptoms(MD=-4.66,95％CI-5.48--3.84,P＜0.01),and cognitive function(MD=1.31,95％CI 1.21-1.41,P＜0.01).Conclusions:Existing evidence shows that animal-assisted interventions can help improve depression,agitation symptoms,and cognitive functions in elderly patients with cognitive impairment.Since this study's results are inconsistent with previous studies and the included articles are limited,more high-quality studies are still needed for validation and supplementation.
Keywords：animal-assisted interventionselderlycognitive impairmentsystematic reviewnursing
Publication Date：2024-07-15
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 2306-2310 )