Table 2:
Overview of animal-assisted intervention (AAI) characteristics, categorized by species and sorted by sample size
| First Author (Year) | N | Terminology | Setting | Ratio (Personnel: Participants: Animals) |
Animal/Handler Certification |
Dose |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program duration (weeks) |
Session frequency (per week) | Session length (minutes) |
Total contact time (hours) | ||||||
| HORSES | |||||||||
| Gabriels (2015) | 116 | Therapeutic horseback riding | Riding center | 2:1:1 | PATH | 10 | 1 | 45 | 7.5 |
| Borgi (2015) | 28 | Equine-assisted therapy | Riding center | 2:3:3 | FISE | 25 | 1 | 65 | 27.1 |
| Steiner (2015) | 26 | Therapeutic horse riding | Riding center | 4:1:1 | - | 4 | 1 | 30 | 2.0 |
| Lanning (2014) | 25 | Equine-assisted activities | Riding center | 4:1:1 | PATH | 12 | 1 | 60 | 12.0 |
| Ward (2013) | 21 | Therapeutic horseback riding | Riding center | 4:1:1 | PATH | 30 | 1 | 60 | 18.0 |
| Garcia-Gomez (2014) | 16 | Therapeutic horse riding | Riding center | 1:4:4 | PATH | 12 | 2 | 45 | 18.0 |
| Tabares (2012) | 8 | Hippotherapy | Riding center | 1:1:1 | AZE | 4 | 1 | 30 | 2.0 |
| Ajzenman (2013) | 7 | Hippotherapy | Riding center | 1:3:3 | PATH | 12 | 1 | 45 | 9.0 |
| Jenkins (2013) | 7 | Therapeutic horseback riding | Riding center | 4:1:1 | PATH | 9 | 1 | 40 | 6.0 |
| Ghorban (2013) | 6 | Therapeutic horseback riding | Riding center | 3:2:2 | - | 4 | 2 | 45 | 6.0 |
| Chen (2015) | 4 | Equine-assisted activity | Riding center | -:1:1 | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.0 |
| Holm (2014) | 3 | Therapeutic horseback riding | Riding center | 4:1:1 | PACTH, NARHA | 12 | 2 | 30–45 | 12.5 |
| DOGS | |||||||||
| Fung (2014) | 10 | Therapy dog | School | 1:1:2 | ASA | 7 | 3 | 20 | 6.7 |
| Grigore (2014) | 3 | Animal-assisted therapy | Treatment center | 2:1:1 | RAAATA | 10 | 3 | 15 | 2.5 |
| Stevenson (2015) | 3 | Sessions with a dog | School | 2:1:1 | - | 10 | 1 | 20 | 1.7 |
| Funahashi (2014) | 2 | Animal-assisted activities | Laboratory | 1:1:3 | - | 28 | <1 | 35 | 2.3 |
| Fung (2015) | 1 | Animal-assisted play therapy | School | 1:1:1 | ASA | 5 | 3 | 20 | 4.7 |
| GUINEA PIGS | |||||||||
| O’Haire (2015) | 99 | Animal-assisted activities | School | 1:3:2 | - | 8 | 2 | 20 | 5.3 |
| O’Haire (2014) | 64 | Animal-assisted activities | School | 1:3:2 | - | 8 | 2 | 20 | 5.3 |
| O’Haire (2013) | 33 | Animal-assisted activities | School | 1:3:2 | - | 8 | 2 | 20 | 5.3 |
| DOLPHINS | |||||||||
| MdYusof (2012) | 15 | Dolphin-assisted therapy | Dolphin center | 3:15:1 | - | 52 | 1 | 75 | 65.0 |
| Salgueiro (2012) | 10 | Dolphin interaction | Dolphin center | 2:1:1 | - | 12 | 1 | 15 | 3.0 |
Notes: Information is reported for the animal-assisted intervention (AAI) condition only, not any control/comparison conditions. Session frequency is the average number of sessions per week, rounded to the nearest whole number. - = not reported, ASA = Animal Asia Foundation, RAAATA = Romanian Association of Animal-Assisted Therapy and Activities, PATH = Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, FISE = Italian Equestrian Federation, PACTH = Pennsylvania Council on Therapeutic Horsemanship, NARHA = North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, AZE = Association of Zootherapy of Extremadura