Cardiac ICU and Cardiac Step Down, South Jersey Healthcare-Regional Medical Center, Vineland, New Jersey 08360, USA.
J Cardiovasc Nurs. 2011 May-Jun;26(3):224-30. doi: 10.1097/JCN.0b013e3182010bd6.
Chronic heart failure (HF) is a prevalent and costly disease process. Early ambulation has been shown to have a positive impact on patient outcomes and length of stay. Animal-assisted therapy is a novel modality that has shown to be a safe and effective adjunct to a number of traditional treatment plans. This study sought to synergistically combine ambulation and animal-assisted therapy by using canine-assisted ambulation (CAA) to improve the ambulation outcomes of HF patients.
Sixty-nine hospitalized patients with a primary diagnosis of HF were approached to ambulate with a restorative aide. After recording their initial response, they were given the opportunity to participate in CAA (walking with a therapy dog). Initial ambulation refusal rate was compared with a historical population of 537 HF patients. Distance ambulated was recorded using a pedometer and compared with a randomly selected, 64-patient sample from the historical HF patient population, stratified by day of hospital stay. Patient satisfaction was assessed through a 5-item Likert scale survey.
The 537-patient historical HF population had an ambulation refusal rate of 28%. When offered the chance to participate in CAA, only 7.2% of the study population refused ambulation (P = .0002). Of the 69-patient study sample, 13 initially refused ambulation then agreed when offered CAA (P = .0009). Distance ambulated increased from 120.2 steps in a randomly selected, stratified historical sample to 235.07 in the CAA study sample (P < .0001). Patients unanimously agreed that they enjoyed CAA and would like to participate in CAA again. Canine-assisted ambulation is a safe and effective adjunct to an early ambulation program for HF patients. Canine-assisted ambulation may decrease hospital length of stay and thereby decrease the costs of HF care. Additional research involving CAA's application to other disease processes in various settings is warranted.
慢性心力衰竭（HF）是一种普遍且代价高昂的疾病过程。早期活动已被证明对患者的预后和住院时间有积极影响。动物辅助治疗是一种新的治疗方式，已被证明是许多传统治疗方案的有效辅助手段。本研究旨在通过使用犬辅助步行（CAA）来协同结合步行和动物辅助治疗，从而改善 HF 患者的步行效果。
共对 69 名住院 HF 患者进行了初步诊断，并邀请他们使用康复辅助设备进行步行。在记录了他们的初始反应后，他们有机会参加 CAA（与治疗犬一起行走）。与 537 例 HF 患者的历史人群相比，比较了初始步行拒绝率。使用计步器记录步行距离，并与历史 HF 患者人群中随机选择的 64 例患者样本进行比较，该样本按住院天数分层。通过 5 项李克特量表调查评估患者满意度。
537 例 HF 患者的历史人群中，有 28%的患者拒绝步行。当有机会参加 CAA 时，只有 7.2%的研究人群拒绝步行（P =.0002）。在 69 例研究样本中，有 13 例最初拒绝步行，然后在提供 CAA 时同意（P =.0009）。在 CAA 研究样本中，步行距离从随机选择的、分层历史样本中的 120.2 步增加到 235.07 步（P<.0001）。患者一致表示他们喜欢 CAA，并希望再次参加 CAA。犬辅助步行是 HF 患者早期步行计划的安全有效辅助手段。犬辅助步行可能会缩短 HF 患者的住院时间，从而降低 HF 护理的成本。需要进行更多涉及 CAA 在不同环境下应用于其他疾病过程的研究。
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