Dog-assisted interventions for children and adults with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions: systematic review.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Dog-assisted interventions (DAIs) to improve health-related outcomes for people with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions are becoming increasingly popular. However, DAIs are not based on robust scientific evidence.

Aims

To determine the effectiveness of DAIs for children and adults with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions, assess how well randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are reported, and examine the use of terminology to classify DAIs.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted in Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. RCTs were grouped by commonly reported outcomes and described narratively with forest plots reporting standardised mean differences and 95% confidence intervals without a pooled est

SUBMITTER: Shoesmith E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7617605 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature