Effects of animal-assisted therapy on changes in autonomic nerve activity in terminally patients

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K10884
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 58060:Clinical nursing-related
• Research Institution: Nihon institute of Medical Science (2022); Japan University of Health Sciences (2019-2021)
• Principal Investigator: Fujisawa Hiroko 日本医療科学大学, 保健医療学部, 講師 (30794705)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 熊坂 隆行 日本保健医療大学, 保健医療学部看護学科, 教授 (80347385) ; 山村 健介 新潟大学, 医歯学系, 教授 (90272822)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 代替医療 / 動物介在療法 / 終末期 / 自律神経活動 / コルチゾール

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We divided terminally ill patients into two groups, an intervention group and a waiting group. Conditional animal-assisted therapy was performed. An electrocardiograph was worn from before to 2 hours after implementation. Changes in mood and saliva were investigated before and after implementation to measure changes in stress. Blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation, and pain were also investigated before and after implementation.
Due to the impact of COVID-19 throughout the research period, the survey was interrupted or canceled for a long time, and it took time to intervene. Although the research period was extended, the planned number of subjects could not be reached. As a result, we only conducted surveys and data collection.
In the future, we plan to analyze the data obtained from this survey and submit a paper and present it at an academic conference.

Free Research Field

医歯薬学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

研究期間全体を通じてCOVID-19の影響を受け、結果としては調査とデータ収集を実施するに留まった。今後、データの分析を進めていく段階である。
今後、動物介在療法を検証することで優位な結果が得られ一般化できれば、日本でも医療の専門性の高い代替療法の1つとして確立でき、病院サービスの１つとなり得ることに、本研究の社会的意義がある。
また、国内外ともに、自律神経変化から調査した報告がない。本分野において、生理学的変化を明らかにし動物介在療法を確立させることは、学術的意義がある。