Pediatric patients with conditions requiring bone marrow transplant (BMT) are subjected to challenging, prolonged clinical courses with aggressive therapies. They face extended hospitalizations, frequent evaluation, and demanding procedures. Animal-assisted Interventions (AAI) are beneficial in providing comfort, reducing pain, and improving emotional stability of hospitalized children. Studies surrounding AAI in the pediatric oncology population are limited, especially in pediatric BMT, as are efforts to understand the role of these interventions for parents/caregivers. We hypothesized that therapy dog visits would be beneficial to the physical and psychological experiences of both patients and caregivers in pediatric BMT. We enrolled 20 pediatric BMT patient/caregiver pairs who expressed interest in a therapy dog visit on our prospective study. Subjects agreed to an observed visit with our divisional therapy dog ( Figure 1 ). Prior to the visit and immediately following, patients and caregivers completed surveys assessing patient and parent-perceived quality of life, burden of symptoms and emotional distress. Observations from twenty therapy dog encounters are shown ( Figure 2 ). Patient-reported scores for burden of fear, sadness, anger, worry, tiredness and pain decreased by 60% after 1 visit with the dog, while caregiver distress reduced by 38%. Decreased symptom burden was statistically significant following just one session with the dog in patient self-reports (p=0.005) and caregiver reports for the child (p=0.0008)( Figure 3 ). Forty percent achieved a previously refused clinical goal only with the dog's assistance (e.g. getting out of bed, participating in physical therapy, completing mouthcare, IV removal). During the therapy dog visit we noted 60% of children shared their feelings, 95% smiled and 80% laughed, prompting more than half of the caregivers to capture photos and videos during the encounter. Marked improvement in patient functioning was observed by patients, caregivers and researchers following just one therapy dog visit. Emotional distress was dramatically reduced in patients and caregivers alike. Important clinical goals were achieved only with AAI. Specially trained to assist with medication administration, mask wearing, physical therapy goals, procedural transitions, clinical needs and emotional support, the potential impact of our divisional therapy dog cannot be overstated. As our therapy dog sessions continue, we are optimistic that AAI is an accessible, meaningful intervention which should be available to pediatric BMT patients, and are eager to explore other applications of this powerful therapy.
Bartlett et al. (Sun,) studied this question.