The Effectiveness of Animal-Assisted Interventions for People Living With Dementia: An Overview of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis.

AIMS: This overview aims to provide high-quality evidence synthesis of animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) among people living with dementia.

BACKGROUND

Dementia has become the seventh leading cause of death in the world. Unfortunately, currently effective pharmacological interventions remain elusive. As a non-pharmacological treatment, AAI is gaining more attention while the effectiveness of AAI for people living with dementia remains unclear.

METHODS

EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, CNKI, VIP, CBM and Wanfang databases were searched from inception to March 2026. The AMSTAR2 was used to assess the methodological quality of the included reviews. Meta-analysis was conducted using STATA 16 for the original studies identified from the included reviews. Evidence quality of main outcomes was assessed according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) guidelines.

RESULTS

Sixteen systematic reviews were included in the overview. A significant improvement was found in depression among dementia patients, but not in agitation, quality of life (QOL), cognition and activities of daily living (ADL).

CONCLUSIONS

There is moderate evidence that AAI has positive effects on depression for people living with dementia. Despite searches, no sufficient evidence has been found to substantiate the positive effects of AAI on other outcomes in people living with dementia. Due to the small number of studies, small sample sizes and significant heterogeneity, more randomised controlled trials with large samples are needed.