A therapy dog's impact on daytime activity and night-time sleep for older persons with Alzheimer's disease : a case study

• Background: Animal-Assisted Therapy using dogs have been described as having a calming effect, decrease sundowning and blood-pressure in persons with Alzheimer’s disease. The aim was to investigate how continuous and scheduled visits by a prescribed therapy dog affected daytime and night-time sleep for persons with Alzheimer’s disease.Methods: In this case study, registration of activity and sleep curves was conducted from five persons with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease living at a nursing home, over a period of 16 weeks using an Actiwatch. Data was analysed with descriptive statistics.Result: The study shows no clear pattern of effect on individual persons daytime activity and sleep when encounter with a therapy dog, but instead points to a great variety of possible different effects that brings an increased activity at different time points, for example during night-time sleep.Conclusions: Effects from the use of a Animal-Assisted Therapy with a dog in the care of persons with Alzheimer’s disease needs to be further investigated and analysed from a personcentred view including both daytime and nightime activities.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Alzheimer's disease

Animal-assisted therapy

Activity

Nursing

Sleep

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