Pet therapy significantly reduced anxiety in children during hospitalization, according to a recent quasi-experimental study published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing.

“A brief pet therapy visit with a trained dog and handler effectively reduced state anxiety” — or an individual’s level of anxiety at a given point in time — “in a sample of hospitalized children between the ages of 6 and 17,” Katherine Hinic, PhD, RN, CNE, professor in residence at Morristown Medical Center, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “Additionally, parents of study participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the pet therapy visits and felt that the visits were beneficial to their children as well as themselves in terms of coping with the stress of hospitalization.”