Impact of Animal-Assisted Interactions on Children with Advanced Cancer
The results indicated that AAI improved child QoL over an 8-week period and reduced caregiver stress. Collecting salivary cortisol and serum epinephrine and norepinephrine was feasible during visits. While decreases in cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine were demonstrated following sessions, the implication of these findings on child physiological stress requires further study.
Authors
- Mary Jo Gilmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1742-3996)
- Terrah Foster Akard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3488-5869)
- Mary S. Dietrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4474-0767)
- Brittany Cowfer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2237-6530)
- Anne Byrd Mahoney
- J. Allen Newton
- Haley Walker
Institutions
- Northwestern University (US)
- Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (US)
- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (US)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Palliative Medicine
- Published
- 2026-02-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/10966218251411677
- Primary Topic
- Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00