The Benefit of Pets and Animal-Assisted Therapy to the Health of Older Individuals

Table 1

Studies on use of animals in dementia.

Study	Type of study		Summary of results
Kongable et al. [7]	Case series/observational	12	Demented subjects had more social behaviors in presence of animal
Richeson [8]	Case series/observational	15	Animal therapy reduced amount of behavioral disturbance
Moretti et al. [9]	Controlled, unblinded, prospective	21	No difference between control and intervention, both had improved MMSE and lower GDS scores
Sellers [10]	Case series/observational	4	Subjects had less agitation and more social behavior with pet present
Edwards and Beck [11]	Case-control/prospective	62	Subjects exposed to a fish tank had greater weight gain ()
Bernstein et al. [12]	Self-controlled, prospective, observational	33	Longer conversations in subjects with animals present
Fick [13]	Self-controlled, prospective, observational	36	More social behavior when animals present
Tamura et al. [14]	Controlled, unblinded, prospective, observational	13	Social response similar to real or toy dog