Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Management of Anxiety in the Hospital Setting: A Systematic Review

The hospital is an environment in which patients and their families feel uncomfortable and frequently suffer from episodes of anxiety. In recent years, there has been a clear trend toward humanizing care and incorporating complementary therapies to provide comfort during hospitalization, one of which is animal-assisted therapy. The aim of this systematic review is to find out whether animal-assisted therapy, specifically with dogs, improves anxiety in people in the hospital setting. For this reason, a systematic review has been carried out following quality criteria, where a total of 13 primary studies have been included. The results obtained indicate that animal-assisted therapy reduces anxiety, increases the feeling of well-being and improves depression in patients who participate in the different sessions, regardless of their age and the duration of the intervention. All participants answered that the animal-assisted therapy was very satisfactory and they wish to repeat it. Different activities that can be carried out during animal-assisted therapy are explained and the importance of adapting the sessions according to the individual characteristics of the dog and the patient in order to achieve the greatest wellbeing are addressed.