The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy on Hospitalized Children and Teenagers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Abstract
Problem Psychological and symptom disturbances seriously affect hospitalized children's subjective experiences of hospitalization and their prognosis. We systematically reviewed the effects of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) on pain, anxiety, depression, stress, blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) in hospitalized children and teenagers. Eligibility criteria A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted using the English-language electronic databases PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Clinical Trials, Science Direct, EBSCOhost, Open Grey and Google Scholar, and the Chinese databases CNKI, Sinomed, Vip, and WanFang. These databases were searched through July 15, 2020. Sample Eight studies, including four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and four quasi-experimental studies were included, with a total of 348 participants. Results Hospitalized children and teenagers with AAT had less pain (standardized mean difference = -0.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.77 to -0.22; P = 0.04), higher diastolic blood pressure (MD = 4.95; 95% CI, 1.90 to 8.00; P = 0.001) than controls, while there was no significant difference in depression, anxiety, stress, or HR. Conclusion As an adjuvant to traditional treatment, AAT was beneficial for controlling pain and BP in hospitalized children and teenagers. Implication AAT may be an effective strategy for relieving pain and controlling BP in hospitalized children and teenagers, especially those with cancer. High-quali…
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“Previous research has linked CAT and animal-assisted interventions to mental health improvements such as reduced anxiety and pain-related symptoms in children [27, 28]”
From Canine-assisted therapy in reducing stress and anxiety levels of university students: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (2025) · cites this paper as [27]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Sim, S. Q., Liu, Z., Wu, Z., Wang, S., & Nisa, C. (2025) · BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies · doi:10.1186/s12906-025-04955-2 · Cited by 14
Metadata
- Authors
- Feng, Y., Lin, Y., Zhang, N., Jiang, X., & Zhang, L.
- Venue
- Journal of Pediatric Nursing
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-09
- Volume
- 60
- Pages
- 11-23
- ISSN
- 0882-5963
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 5
- Language
- en
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