Animal-assisted services dogs in a hospital setting: a literature review

Abstract

Animal-assisted intervention (AAI) was used as an umbrella term encompassing various forms of animal-involved practices until the end of 2024, including animal-assisted therapy (AAT), animal-assisted activities (AAA), and animal-assisted education (AAE). More recently, this terminology has been updated and replaced by animal-assisted services (AAS). When this review was conducted, the term animal-assisted services (AAS) had not yet been proposed and formally accepted. Therefore, this review used the umbrella term animal-assisted interventions (AAI). The incorporation of AAI into the healthcare setting began in the eighteenth century and has accelerated in the last decade. To better understand the participation of dogs in AAI in a hospital setting, we searched in four databases (Scopus, PubMed, CABI and Web of Science) for the keywords ((“animal assisted intervention” OR “pet therapy” OR AAI OR “animal assisted activity” OR AAA OR “animal assisted therapy” OR AAT) AND (dog) AND (hospital)) in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. PRISMA guidelines were partially adhered to. We initially identified 412 papers, excluded duplicates, and selected the remaining papers based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, ultimately retaining 120 suitable papers published between 1993 and 2022. The papers were categorized into seven groups according to subject similarity: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Heart Disease, Oncology, Psychosocial, Physiological, both Psychosocial and Physiological, and Miscellaneous. We found significant variation across papers regarding the purpose of the program, the hospital departments in which the interventions took place, session duration, recipients’ physical and mental health status, as well as additional people benefiting from AAS apart from its direct recipients. This highlights the existence of numerous approaches to delivering AAS, creating many possibilities for future research.