Take out
Rebecca Johnson
Entering a nursing home is a scary transition for many elderly people. So anything that can help ease the anxiety that comes with such a tremendous lifestyle change is worth exploration.
That’s why Rebecca Johnson is putting new nursing home residents in touch — literally — with dogs.
The Millsap Professor of Gerontological Nursing and Public Policy and associate professor of nursing, Johnson also holds an adjunct appointment with the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and is director of the MU Research Center on Human-Animal Interaction.
Her current study on “testing a dog visit protocol with newly admitted nursing home residents” is funded by a $7,500 grant from the MU Research Council.
Nicknamed “Pet Pals,” the program that Johnson is testing is designed to determine whether visits from friendly dogs are beneficial to new nursing home residents’ emotional state.
“We give people one-on-one time with the animal,” she explains, noting the dogs are trained visitor animals from the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Pet Assisted Love & Support (PALS) program. A research assistant is present during the visit but has minimal interaction with the subject.
“After introducing the dog, the person who accompanies the dog basically sits back and blends into the background,” Johnson says.
While self-reporting is one method for tracking an individual’s experience before and after the dog’s visit, Johnson also tests for levels of salivary cortisol, a physiological measure of stress. Typically, cortisol levels are high prior to moving into a nursing home, tapering off gradually as the individual becomes accustomed to the new surroundings.
Johnson is looking for more rapid cortisol decreases as evidence that the dog visits mitigate stress.
“This is a small, pilot study that we plan to use to pursue more funding for a much larger study,” she says.
Her current research tested five control subjects and five others who were visited by China, a beautiful white shepherd owned by a PALS member. To ensure that the subjects are not responding to the research assistant’s human presence, Johnson is also testing a group that receives human visits.
The study is a natural intersection of Johnson’s previous work related to the relocation of older adults and her research regarding the human-animal bond.
“I’ve been studying relocation issues since 1992,” she says. “The same things keep happening to people when they enter nursing homes. It’s extremely stressful and just not good for older adults.” In many cases, she notes, the decision to enter a nursing home results from a catastrophic health challenge or other rapid change in life situation, which doesn't’t allow for optimal mental and emotional preparation.
Although she is still analyzing the pilot study’s preliminary results, Johnson says anecdotal evidence indicates a positive correlation between the dog visits and emotional outlook of residents.
“The people just love the dog,” she says.
While Johnson explores how dogs can make elderly people more emotionally healthy, she also is studying how dogs can help overweight people become more physically fit.
Johnson is completing work on a long-term study, titled “Walking for Healthy Hearts,” in which sedentary, overweight individuals participated in a dog-walking program. The study’s early results were covered in the national press, which trumpeted the fact that Johnson’s subjects in the 50-week program lost significant amounts of weight—an average of 14 pounds. Those in a 26-week version of the program lost about five pounds.
Funded by a $133,160 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health, Johnson and collaborator Richard Meadows from the MU College of Veterinary Medicine found that program participants became dedicated to walking because they believed that the dogs needed them to provide an important service.
“The fact that they thought they were helping the dogs enhanced participation and compliance,” she says.
In fact, participants noted that “the dogs made them better people and helped them feel better in general. They had very positive experiences.”
While the initial results seem to indicate that the participants’ weight loss was due to the addition of a walking program, Johnson notes that she did not control for nutritional changes, although she suspects that the subjects’ diets did not change significantly.
Regardless, she is pleased that several of the 26 program participants were so enthused that they became dog-walking volunteers at local animal shelters, and two individuals adopted dogs of their own.
“There’s no question that the people who participated in this program felt support and love from the dogs,” Johnson says. “Even though these were working dogs, trained to participate in this program, they are unconditionally loving, regardless.”
Johnson’s research of how animals can help improve human health continues with a new grant application, currently under review by the National Institutes for Health, in which her successful dog-walking program would be expanded.
The program’s next phase would involve recruiting overweight public housing residents to begin a gymbased fitness program in which dogs accompany participants to the gym as a means of social support.
“The goal is to see if this type of support motivates compliance with exercise other than just walking,” she says. And with Johnson’s innovative programs paving the way, animals may soon be the key to a fitter life for many people.