ReviewAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2020
Methodological and Terminological Issues in Animal-Assisted Interventions: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews.
Review in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Dog-assisted interventions for children and adults with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions: systematic review.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2026Pooled it
- Animal-Assisted Interventions for the Improvement of Mental Health Outcomes in Higher Education Students: A Systematic Review of Randomised Controlled Trials.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Nature's Role in Outdoor Therapies: An Umbrella Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- The role of dog therapy in clinical recovery and improving quality of life: a randomized, controlled trial.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2024Trial
- Intraoral clinical examinations of pediatric patients with anticipatory anxiety and situational fear facilitated by therapy dog assistance: A pilot RCT.Clinical and experimental dental research · 2023Trial
- Therapy Dog Presence During Chemotherapy in a Day Chemotherapy Unit: A Prospective Pilot Comparative Pre-Post Study.Cureus · 2026Article
- Animal-Assisted Interventions for Neurodivergent Individuals: Advancing Research, Practice, and Well-Being.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Reporting of dog-assisted intervention trials: extension of the SPIRIT 2025 and CONSORT 2025 statement.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Animal-Assisted Therapy for Reducing Anxiety in Vulnerable Clinical Populations: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Parent-reported behavioral changes following equine-assisted therapy in children with autism spectrum disorder: a single-group longitudinal study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Agency denied: PADA and the perils of paternalistic dog care.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Can the treatment effects of human-animal interaction be maintained? A randomized controlled trial including follow-up in people with severe mental illness.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- A Pre-Screening Tool to Assess Dog Suitability for Animal-Assisted Interventions: Preliminary Results for Dog-Suitability Tests (Veterinary sciences · 2025Article
- "The Sheep Did It Again": Replication of Animal-Assisted Treatment in Psychiatric Inpatients with Substance Use Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder in a Randomized Controlled Trial.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Animal-Assisted Activities for Patients with Central Nervous System Disease in Acute Rehabilitation Setting.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Animal-Assisted Interventions in Paediatric Hospitals: An Investigation of Italian Healthcare Personnel Attitudes.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Editorial: Evidencing the impact of human-animal interaction for those living with mental health problems.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Unconventional Animal Species Participation in Animal-Assisted Interventions and Methods for Measuring Their Experienced Stress.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- Can sheep help to improve positive emotions, mindfulness, and self-efficacy expectancy? A pilot study of animal-assisted intervention as an enhanced CBT-based therapy for substance use disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recently, animal-assisted interventions (AAIs), which are defined as psychological, educational, and rehabilitation support activities, have become widespread in different contexts. For many years, they have been a subject of interest in the international scientific community and are at the center of an important discussion regarding their effectiveness and the most appropriate practices for their realization. We carried out an umbrella review (UR) of systematic reviews (SRs), created for the purpose of exploring the literature and aimed at deepening the terminological and methodological aspects of AAIs. It is created by exploring the online databases PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library. The SRs present in the high-impact indexed search engines Web of Sciences and Scopus are selected. After screening, we selected 15 SRs that met the inclusion criteria. All papers complained of the poor quality of AAIs; some considered articles containing interventions that did not always correspond to the terminology they have explored and whose operating practices were not always comparable. This stresses the need for the development and consequent diffusion of not only operational protocols, but also research protocols which provide for the homogeneous use of universally recognized terminologies, thus facilitating the study, deepening, and comparison between the numerous experiences described.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.