title: The effect of service dogs on the improvement of health-related quality of life.
abstract: To assess the effects of service dogs on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), we conducted a survey of 10 service dog owners using SF-36v2 (Medical Outcomes Study 36 Item Short-Form Health Survey Version 2.0) and compared it with a matched control group of people with physical disabilities who did not have service dogs but were eligible for one. The scores for mental health and role emotional of service dog owners were relatively high, and their mental component summary was higher than the general population norm. These results indicate that service dogs affect the mentality of their owners. The comparison with the control group indicated that service dogs alleviate the mental burden of daily activities, and subjectively improved the physical functioning of their owners. This study showed that service dogs have positive functional and mental effects on their disabled owners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan. maif_s@ybb.ne.jp
authors.forename: Mai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shintani
authors.forename: Masuo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Senda
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takayanagi
authors.forename: Yoshimi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.forename: Kazunari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Furusawa
authors.forename: Tamami
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okutani
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kataoka
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ozaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life