Effects of animal-assisted therapy in older adults with cognitive impairment: A systematic review

Abstract

Interventions in older people with cognitive impairment are difficult to carry out because they do not follow orders, they present aggressive behaviour or they are unpredictable. For this reason, the objective of this review was to describe the effect of Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) in this population, reporting the results published in the literature on physical, psychosocial and cognitive function. After a review of 160 articles, 5 were selected according to selection criteria, demonstrating that AAT is an effective therapy in people with mild to moderate cognitive impairment, where the dog is the most used co-therapist, however, research is still incipient.