A day care program and evaluation of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for the elderly with senile dementia.
We conducted a survey to clarify the evaluation methods of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for the elderly with senile dementia in an adult day care center. AAT was implemented for a total of six biweekly sessions. The AAT group consisted of seven subjects and the control group numbered 20 subjects. In a comparison between Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) scores at baseline and those measured three months later, the average MMSE score before AAT (baseline) was 11.43 (+/- 9.00), and three months later it was 12.29(+/- 9.69). In the AAT group, the average score on Nishimura's Activities of Daily Living (N-ADL) at baseline was 28.43(+/- 14.00), and after ATT it was 29.57(+/- 14.47). In the AAT group, the average baseline score on behavioral pathology of Alzheimer's disease (Behave-AD) was 11.14(+/- 4.85), and three months after AAT it was 7.29(+/- 7.11) (p < 0.05). In the control group, the average baseline score was 5.45(+/- 3.27) and three months later it was 5.63(+/- 3.59). The evaluation of salivary CgA, as a mental stress index, showed a decreasing tendency in the AAT group. Our findings demonstrate the usefulness of using several methods for evaluation of the changes in patients given AAT.
Kanamori
M
M
Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Hamamatsu University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan.
Suzuki
M
M
Yamamoto
K
K
Kanda
M
M
Matsui
Y
Y
Kojima
E
E
Fukawa
H
H
Sugita
T
T
Oshiro
H
H
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D003631:Day Care, Medical; D005260:Female; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors