title: Effects of VA Facility Dog on Hospitalized Veterans Seen by a Palliative Care Psychologist: An Innovative Approach to Impacting Stress Indicators.
abstract: The United States is home to 23 million veterans. In many instances, veterans with serious illness who seek healthcare at the VA receive care from a palliative care service. Animal-assisted intervention (AAI) is gaining attention as a therapeutic stress reducing modality; however, its effects have not been well studied in veterans receiving palliative care in an acute care setting. A crossover repeated-measures study was conducted to examine the effects of an animal-assisted intervention (AAI) in the form of a therapy dog on stress indicators in 25 veterans on the palliative care service at the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System in Denver, CO. Veterans had a visit from a therapy dog and the dog's handler, a clinical psychologist (experimental condition) and an unstructured visit with the clinical psychologist alone (control condition). Blood pressure, heart rate, and the salivary biomarkers cortisol, alpha-amylase, and immunoglobulin A were collected before, after, and 30-minutes after both the experimental and control conditions. Significant decreases in cortisol were found when the before time period was compared to the 30-minutes after time period for both the experimental ( p = 0.007) and control condition ( p = 0.036). A significant decrease in HR was also found when the before time period was compared to the 30-minutes after time period for both the experimental ( p = 0.0046) and control ( p = 0.0119) condition. Results of this study supported that a VA facility dog paired with a palliative care psychologist had a measurable impact on salivary cortisol levels and HR in veterans.
authors.affiliation: 1 Canines Providing Assistance to Wounded Warriors (C-P.A.W.W.), Health Research Initiative for Veterans, College of Nursing, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Cheryl A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Krause-Parello
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Medicine, Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Cari
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.affiliation: 3 Palliative care psychologist and handler of facility dog Waffle, Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Holman
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Statistics and Biostatistics, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kolassa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D056447:Animal Assisted Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003120:Colorado; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy*; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs; D000516:alpha-Amylases / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D000516:alpha-Amylases; D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: animal-assisted intervention; cortisol; heart rate; stress; therapy dog; veterans