Pet therapy reduces blood pressure in elderly (>65 years) females: A preliminary report

Research output: Contribution to conferencePosterpeer-review

Abstract

Research indicates, pets influence the social, psychological, and physical health of the elderly population by lowering stressors associated with decreased social engagement and activity. The presence of pets also seems to alleviate elderly morbidity and mortality rates. Current studies have focused on the psychological and physical effects of pet therapy over time or induced acute stressors in the presence or absence of pet therapy. These studies indicate good outcomes but have small sample sizes and rarely investigate how short-term pet therapy might affect elderly health.
Our main goals in this study were to:
1) determine whether or not short-term pet therapy reduces blood pressure in the elderly (>65 years old);
2) lay the foundations for a large database.
We hypothesized that a 15-minute pet therapy encounter would reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the participants. We collected data from two groups by manually measuring blood pressure (BP) before and after each encounter. Both groups consisted of a 15-minute in-person visit with either pet therapy (experimental) or no pet therapy (control). Preliminary results showed visits with pet therapy decreased systole (3.44%) and diastole (4.76%). Without pet therapy, systole decreased by 0.23% and diastole increased by 3.11%. Human error within this project includes manually measuring BP and mistiming encounters (will fix with a stopwatch). Instrumental errors likely result from utilizing two separate BP devices. Moving forward, we hope to include both males and females along with Native American participants.
Original languageAmerican English
Pages122
StatePublished - 18 Feb 2022
EventOklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences Research Week 2022 : Poster Presentation - Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa, United States
Duration: 14 Feb 202218 Feb 2022
https://medicine.okstate.edu/research/docs/rw2022_agenda.pdf (Research Week 2022 Agenda)

Conference

ConferenceOklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences Research Week 2022
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityTulsa
Period14/02/2218/02/22
Internet address

Keywords

  • Pet therapy
  • blood pressure
  • elderly

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