Equine assisted services impact on social skills in autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analysis

Many studies focus on the impact of equine assisted services (EAS) on social skills in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but existing data are not consensual and the only available meta-analysis included only three studies and did not consider the social responsiveness scale (SRS). This meta-analysis aims to measure the impact of EAS on social skills in ASD. Using Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library, the means and standard deviations of every available SRS post-intervention scores in each participant group were collected from the five selected randomised controlled trials with 240 participants. An EAS significant beneficial impact was found for the total SRS score, social communication and social cognition. A tendency to a significant impact was found for social awareness and social motivation. No significant difference was shown for autistic mannerisms. This meta-analysis shows a significant beneficial impact of EAS for several social skills in ASD. Further randomised controlled trials are required to complement these results and expand the knowledge on the field of possibilities of this care in ASD.