Hur äldres hälsa, på ett äldreboende, påverkas psykiskt, fysiskt och socialt av hundar

Abstract

Background: The Swedish population is getting older and approximately 1.5 million people over 60 years old are living in a nursing home. The purpose of the nurse profession is to promote health. Health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being and merely the absence of disease or infirmity. From a historical perspective dogs have been working for humans in centuries. Dogs are one of the animals that are being used in health care and in nursing homes. Therefore it is of importance to find out how dogs affect the elderly. Aim: The aim was to study how the health of the elderly in a nursing home, are affected mentally, physically and socially by dogs. Method: A literature review based on nine scientific original articles. Results: The summary of the articles created three main categories; psychological health effects, physiological health effects and social health effects. Conclusion: Dogs are being used in healthcare and the literature review shows that dogs have a good effect on mental, physical and social health of elderly. With knowledge of the reaction on the presence of a dog, the nurse gets an opportunity to use it to the advantage and to influence and to promote optimal holistic health for the elderly. Further research is for example to find advantages and disadvantages with educated and trained dogs against private dogs out of a health promotion perspective is needed.