Animal-Assisted Intervention in Dementia: Effects on Quality of Life

This article investigates the impact of animal-assisted intervention on the quality of life for individuals with dementia. It discusses the benefits of non-pharmacological treatment methods and presents findings from a pilot study conducted in Sweden. The study concludes that animal-assisted intervention can improve the quality of life for individuals with dementia.

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Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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1. The THESIS
The main idea of the article is that the non-pharmacological treatment methods like
animal-assisted intervention are helpful for dementia which helps to improve the
quality of life. The present study helped to evaluate effects of the AAI on the quality
of life (QoL) for the people suffering from dementia in the hospital setting of Sweden.
2. TOPIC SENTENCES
Previous researches have indicated that animal-assisted interventions have been
beneficial in people suffering from dementia.
The non-pharmaceutical treatments and the methods can serve as complements or
alternatives to the pharmacological or the medical treatments.
The alternatives available are physical training, caregiver’s singing as well as the
animal assisted intervention.
It is very important that the animal is managed by the individual along with training in
the form of a therapy.
3. Possible BIAS
The bias that was witnessed in the current study was that there was biasness in the
gender of the participants selected. There were more number of women in comparison
to men. Additionally biasness was witnessed in terms of the age group that was
considered.
4. Organizational structure
The organizational structure for the study presented is a report. The format of
report features that it includes the studies conducted in the past along with the current
studies. There is also presentation of the findings and the reports acquired from these

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studies. This also presents an aspect of argument since the presentation of the study
involves the postulations along with the hypothesis testing, mainly which is AAI here,
which is beneficial to the individuals suffering from dementia.
The physical layout of the article included the abstract, introduction, methods,
results, discussion, application and acknowledgement.
5. Pieces of evidence
The pieces of evidences that are obtained from the study includes
Previously conducted studies that is the literature.
The results obtained from the current study
The tables showing the statistical evidence of the obtained result.
6. ETHOS (credibility)
The credential of the authors
Acknowledgements
The references of the scholarly articles and peer reviewed journals
7. AUDIENCE
The target-audience for this scholarly article will be the psychologists,
psychiatrists, health care practitioners mainly nurses, doctors as well as veterinarians.
8. PURPOSE
The purpose of this article is to provide information regarding the use of non-
pharmacological methods for dementia. Additionally it also provides an argument that
helps to discuss the mentioned argument in the paper.
9. Level of language

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The language used in the paper is formal and also neutral since no such
evident bias is shown in the paper. There were several technical terms used in the
paper like ANIMAL-ASSITED INTERVENTION, QUALID, QoL and others.
No such emotion is reflected in the paper that is there was no or very little PATHOS
present in the language of the paper.
Summary
The article presented here is titled “Animal-Assisted Intervention in Dementia:
Effects on Quality of Life” which is authored by Lena Nordgren and Gabriella Engstrom.
According to this article, in the recent times there is a need to establish treatment method
which are non-pharmaceutical in nature, therefore can serve as alternatives to the medications
given for dementia care. It has already been established through previous studies that the
animal-assisted interventions (AAI) are beneficial in nature. This present study which is
conducted as a pilot study helps to investigate the impact of AAI on the quality of life (QoL)
especially in terms of the patients who are suffering from dementia. The research design used
in the given study was a pre-test which included a sample population of twenty people where
there were 12 women and 8 men who belonged to the age group of 58 and 68 years of age.
Among this, there were nine individuals only who completed the designed intervention along
with the certified therapy dog team. After the results were obtained, the result showed a
significant difference hence the hypothesis was regarded to be true, therefore proving that
AAI is beneficial for the improvement of the quality of life for the people suffering from
dementia. Although it was observed that the impact of AAI is not going to last for a very long
period of time, however it was regarded to be useful for its immediate effects which played
an important part for the promotion of better quality of life for the people experiencing
dementia diseases. This study also successfully identified several future directions which

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would be helpful in terms of overcoming the barriers that were faced during the research and
to validate the present findings in a better way.

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References
Nordgren, L., & Engström, G. (2014). Animal-assisted intervention in dementia: effects on
quality of life. Clinical nursing research, 23(1), 7-19.