Department of Pharmacognosy and Herbal Medicine, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University for Development Studies, P.O. Box TL 1350, Tamale, Ghana.
Department of Animal Biology and Conservation Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
BMC Complement Med Ther. 2024 Nov 4;24(1):382. doi: 10.1186/s12906-024-04679-9.
The role of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) in complementary and alternative medicine is well acknowledged. AAT is widely patronized, in developed countries such as USA, Canada, and many European countries, but less so in developing countries in Africa including Ghana. For persons in developing African countries and elsewhere to benefit from AAT, healthcare professionals must be acquainted with it recommend it to their patients when necessary. This study therefore assessed the perspectives of clinical-level medical students on AAT.
A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data in a cross-sectional study from 206 randomly selected clinical-level medical students of the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS (Version 26) and the results were presented in Tables and charts. The association between demographic variables and the knowledge and attitude of the students were determined using ANOVA, while bivariate Pearson's correlation was used to measure the relationships between continuous variables. Associations were considered significant when p-value < 0.05.
The knowledge about AAT among the medical students was very poor (0.971 ± 2.407 over 10; 9.7%); almost all of them (≈ 99.0%) had very little or no exposure to AAT in school or at home. The attitude of the students was however averagely positive (3.845 ± 0.748 over 7; 54.9%), with a perceived health benefit of ATT score of 4.768 ± 1.002 (68.1%). The motivation of the students to acquire more knowledge and skills about AAT mostly through lectures and practical sessions (70.9%) was good (4.809 ± 1.221; 68.7%). Female students were significantly more knowledgeable about AAT than their male counterparts (1.5 versus 0.6; p-value = 0.006). No other sociodemographic characteristics had any significant association with knowledge, attitude, and perception of benefit variables. However, a significant positive relationship was found to exist between the students' knowledge, attitude and perception of animal-assisted therapy (r ≥ 0.236; p-value ≤ 0.001).
We conclude that the knowledge about AAT among medical students is inadequate and this is worrying given the beneficial complementary role of AAT in achieving SDG 3. Medical schools and their regulators in Ghana should incorporate complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) lessons in their training curricula. For practising medical doctors, topics on CAM should be discussed during their Continuous Professional Development sessions. With better knowledge, physicians would possibly be more willing and confident in recommending this useful complementary and alternative medicine to patients who may seek other forms of therapy besides conventional medicine or which will augment the orthodox medication the patients may have been using to treat their conditions.
动物辅助疗法（AAT）在补充和替代医学中的作用得到了广泛认可。AAT 在像美国、加拿大和许多欧洲国家这样的发达国家得到了广泛的青睐，但在包括加纳在内的非洲发展中国家却较少。为了让发展中国家的人和其他地区的人受益于 AAT，医疗保健专业人员必须了解它，并在必要时向患者推荐。因此，本研究评估了临床水平医学生对 AAT 的看法。
采用横断面研究，使用半结构式问卷从加纳塔马利大学的 206 名随机选择的临床水平医学生中收集数据。使用 Microsoft Excel 和 SPSS（版本 26）分析数据，结果以表格和图表呈现。使用 ANOVA 确定人口统计学变量与学生知识和态度之间的关联，使用双变量 Pearson 相关测量连续变量之间的关系。当 p 值<0.05 时，认为关联具有统计学意义。
医学生对 AAT 的了解非常有限（10 分制得分为 0.971±2.407；9.7%）；他们几乎所有人（≈99.0%）在学校或家中都很少或没有接触过 AAT。然而，学生的态度平均较为积极（7 分制得分为 3.845±0.748；54.9%），认为 ATT 的健康益处得分为 4.768±1.002（68.1%）。学生获取更多关于 AAT 的知识和技能的动机主要是通过讲座和实践课程（70.9%），这很好（4.809±1.221；68.7%）。女学生对 AAT 的了解明显多于男学生（1.5 分对 0.6 分；p 值=0.006）。没有其他社会人口统计学特征与知识、态度和受益感知变量有任何显著关联。然而，学生的知识、态度和对动物辅助疗法的受益感知之间存在显著的正相关关系（r≥0.236；p 值≤0.001）。
我们的结论是，医学生对 AAT 的了解不足，这令人担忧，因为 AAT 在实现可持续发展目标 3 方面具有有益的补充作用。加纳的医学院校及其监管机构应将补充和替代医学课程纳入其培训课程。对于执业医生，应在其持续专业发展会议上讨论补充和替代医学课程。随着知识的增加，医生可能会更愿意并更有信心向寻求常规医学以外的其他治疗形式的患者推荐这种有用的补充和替代医学，或者可能会增强患者可能一直在使用的常规药物来治疗他们的病情。
