Objective:

To describe the use of animal-assisted intervention in institutionalized older adults.

Methodology:

An exhaustive review of the literature has been carried out between the years 2010-2019 in the following databases: Web Of Science, PubMed, Cinahl, Cuiden and Dialnet. 325 articles were obtained, of which 29 were finally selected for the presentation of results on animal-assisted intervention (AAI).

Results:

The AAI is a non-pharmacological treatment that provides improvements in areas such as the biological, social, psychological and physiological aspects of institutionalized older adults. We found that AAI can be combined with play therapy for the older adult, with reality-oriented therapy and with physical therapy, in order to combine its effects. In addition, AAI can be considered as a good option as a non-pharmacological treatment, since it can be implanted in the entire older adults.

Conclusions:

The implementation of the AAI for use with institutionalized older adults has been shown to improve the quality of life, providing multiple benefits, and this is reinforced when combined with other therapies. Finally, with respect to the substitution of the real animal for the robotic pet, we observe how the benefits provided are similar, so that there is a health promotion for the institutionalized older adults.

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