Dog visits good for hospitalized children

Do dog visits help calm children who are facing the stress of being in the hospital and away from home and family? A study done at the UW Children’s Hospital shows that while potential calming effects are inconclusive, the dogs definitely make the children happier.

Results of the study, published in the winter issue of Children’s Health Care Journal, confirm that hospitalized children are happier when they get a chance to interact with dogs than when they are given organized play time. The researchers – Mary Kaminski, director of the hospital’s Child Life program; Teresa Pellino, clinical nurse research specialist; and Joel Wish, psychologist and director of Health Psychology – attribute this to the touching that’s inherent in visiting with dogs.

The project was conducted at the UW Children’s Hospital using Pet Pals, a volunteer program sponsored by the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. Dogs must pass stringent personality and health tests to qualify them to visit hospitalized children through the program.

Unlike studies done in adults, the researchers found, the heart rates of children in their study were not reduced by contact with the animals. Researchers suspect the explanation may be anticipation: The children were quite eager to see the dogs. They say that more work is needed to draw any conclusions about calming effects.

“This is the first study to look at the effects of animals on hospitalized children,” says Linda Sullivan, a clinical instructor in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Pathobiological Sciences and one of the coordinators of the Pet Pals program.