scholarly journals Effects of Dog-Based Animal-Assisted Interventions in Prison Population: A Systematic Review

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2129
Author(s):  
Beatriz Villafaina-Domínguez ◽  
Daniel Collado-Mateo ◽  
Eugenio Merellano-Navarro ◽  
Santos Villafaina

Background: Animal-assisted interventions, in concrete dog-assisted intervention, have been introduced in prisons to reduce recidivism as well as to improve the well-being of prisoners. Therefore, the aim of the present systematic review is to provide an up-to-date analysis of the research on the effects of dog-based animal-assisted therapy in prison population. Methods: An electronic search of the literature was performed, and 20 articles were included. The PRISMA guideline methodology was employed. Results: Included studies involved a total of 1577 participants. The vast majority of protocols included activities related with dog training, dog caring, or activities, which included vocational or educational components. Duration of dog-based therapies ranged between 60 and 120 min, with the frequency being between 1 and 3 days/week. Statistically significant improvements in prisoners were observed in 13 studies. Conclusions: Dog-based animal-assisted therapy may improve anxiety, stress, recidivism, and other social variables in male or female inmates.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1176
Author(s):  
Marco Tramontano ◽  
Sara De De Angelis ◽  
Giovanni Galeoto ◽  
Maria Carmela Cucinotta ◽  
Danilo Lisi ◽  
...  

Background: Sleep occupies one-third of human life and is essential for health and for emotional, physical, and cognitive well-being. Poor or insufficient sleep is associated with a wide range of dysfunctions that involve different body systems, such as the endocrine, metabolic, and immune systems, thus compromising the higher cortical functions, cognitive performance, mood, and post-physical activity recovery. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to explore the effectiveness of physical therapy exercises on sleep disorders in patients with neurological disorders. Our systematic review identified 10 articles that investigated the effects of physical therapy on sleep disorders in patients with neurological disorders, 6 of which were included in the meta-analysis. Results suggest that physical therapy exercises are a safe and useful strategy for managing sleep disorders in neurorehabilitation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1412
Author(s):  
Belén Pastor-Villaescusa ◽  
Ruth Blanco-Rojo ◽  
Mónica Olivares

Reducing the incidence of gastrointestinal infections (GIs) that occur at early stages to mitigate hospitalizations and treatments with adverse effects is a promising strategy for providing well-being to infants and their families. This systematic review and meta-analysis explores whether the early administration of Limosilactobacillus fermentum CECT5716 might be effective as a preventive therapy for GIs. We reviewed the literature to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effectiveness of milk formulas supplemented with L. fermentum CECT5716 administered to infants at early stages to reduce the incidence of GIs. The MEDLINE (via PubMed), Web of Science (WoS), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (via CENTRAL) databases were searched up to 15 June 2021. GI data from the included studies were synthesized in a random-effects model. Three RCTs were finally selected including 435 infants. There was a significant reduction in the incidence rate of GIs for those receiving L. fermentum CECT5716 compared with those receiving placebo (IRR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.36–0.74, p = 0.0004). Heterogeneity between studies was moderate (I2 = 54.5%). Based on the present systematic review and meta-analysis, the administration of L. fermentum CECT5716 at doses from 1 × 109 to 8.4 × 108 cfu/day in milk formulas may prevent GIs in infants up to 12 months old. Longer-term studies including a higher number of infants are needed to determine whether the use of this probiotic during the early stages of life is an efficient way to reduce the incidence of GIs.


Author(s):  
Veronica Papa ◽  
Domenico Tafuri ◽  
Mauro Vaccarezza

More than 10.74 million people are currently held in penal institutions worldwide. Moreover, there is also evidence that the percentage of elder and female prisoners has been consistently growing. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Exercise training and physical activity help to prevent both primary and secondary cardiovascular events. Data on the influence of physical activity on the well-being in prison population is scarce. Here, we discussed, in a systematic review, the general health conditions and the cardiovascular risk profile in the prisoners compared to the general population and evaluated whether or not exercise could be a valuable tool in preventing these diseases in inmates. We performed a systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement: 769 were initially identified, and a total of 24 studies were finally included. Nine studies evaluated the health conditions in prisoners, five studies evaluated the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the prison population, and 10 studies evaluated the feasibility and the effectiveness of exercise programs in prisoners. Sports-educational programs can benefit prison inmates. It appears that supervised exercise training is an effective coping strategy to deal with incarceration. Moreover, it seems the sports programs might be a useful tool in improving physical and mental health of prisoners as well as in decreasing cardiovascular risk factors.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1248-1261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Larkin ◽  
Norelee Kennedy

Background:Physical activity (PA) is an important component in the management of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). To date the correlates of PA have not been thoroughly investigated in the RA population. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the correlates of PA in the adult RA population.Methods:A search of Medline, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL plus, Pubmed, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library was conducted. A manual search of reference lists was conducted to compliment the electronic search. Ten studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were assessed for methodological quality.Results:Results determined correlates in 4 categories: sociodemographic, physical, psychological and social variables. The variables varied greatly and were inconsistently studied. Changes were noted from a previous review in 2005 in relation to the association between certain variables and PA, including age, gender, disease duration, pain, exercise beliefs and social support.Conclusions:Positive associations with PA were found for motivation, self-efficacy, health perception, and previous PA levels. Negative associations were found for fatigue, a coerced regulation style and certain physiological variables. In addition differences between correlates of PA in the adult RA population and other chronic disease and healthy adult populations have been demonstrated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Alice Lo ◽  
Caroline Hunt ◽  
Maree J. Abbott

AbstractDifferent and evolving conceptualisations of perfectionism have led to the development of numerous perfectionism measures in an attempt to capture the true representations of the construct. It is, therefore, important to ensure that these instruments are valid and reliable. The present systematic review examined the literature for the psychometric properties of the most commonly used general multidimensional trait perfectionism self-report measures. Relevant studies were identified by a systematic electronic search of academic databases. A total of 349 studies were identified, with 38 of these meeting inclusion criteria. The psychometric properties presented in each of these studies were subjected to assessment using a standardised protocol. All studies were evaluated by two reviewers independently. Results indicated that while none of the included measures demonstrated adequacy across all of the nine psychometric properties assessed, most were found to possess adequate internal consistency and construct validity. The absence of evidence to support adequate measurement properties over a number of domains for the measures included in this review may be attributed to the criteria of adequacy used, with some appearing overly strict and less relevant to perfectionism measures. Clinical and research relevance of the present findings and directions for future research are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 401-401
Author(s):  
Yue-Heng Yin ◽  
Liu Yat Justina

Abstract Obesity has been shown to intensify the decline of physical function and lead to frailty. Nutrition is an important method in managing obesity and frailty, while seldom reviews have ever explored the effects of nutritional education interventions. We conducted a systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42019142403) to explore the effectiveness of nutritional education interventions in managing body composition and physio-psychosocial parameters related to frailty. Randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies were searched in CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed and Scopus from 2001 to 2019. Hand search for the reference lists of included papers was conducted as well. We assessed the quality of included studies by Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analyses and narrative synthesis were used to analyse the data. Two studies with low risk of bias were screened from 180 articles, which involved 177 older people with an average age of 69.69±4.08 years old. The results showed that nutritional education was significantly effective in reducing body weight and fat mass than exercises, and it was beneficial to enhancing physical function and psychosocial well-being. But the effects of nutritional education in increasing muscle strength were not better than exercises. The combined effects of nutritional education and exercises were superior than either exercises or nutritional education interventions solely in preventing the loss of lean mass and bone marrow density, and in improving physical function. Due to limited numbers of relevant studies, the strong evidence of effectiveness of nutritional education interventions on reversing frailty is still lacking.


2021 ◽  
pp. 030157422110195
Author(s):  
Ashish Agrawal ◽  
TM Chou

Introduction: The objective of this systematic review is to assess the effect of vibrational force on biomarkers for orthodontic tooth movement. Methods: An electronic search was conducted for relevant studies (up to December 31, 2020) on the following databases: Pubmed, Google scholar, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wiley Library, and ProQuest Dissertation Abstracts and Thesis database. Hand searching of selected orthodontic journals was also undertaken. The selected studies were assessed for the risk of bias in Cochrane collaboration risk of bias tool. The “traffic plot” and “weighted plot” risk of bias distribution are designed in the RoB 2 tool. The 2 authors extracted the data and analyzed it. Results: Six studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The risks of biases were high for 4, low and some concern for other 2 studies. The biomarkers, medium, device, frequency and duration of device, as well as other data were extracted. The outcomes of the studies were found to be heterogenous. Conclusion: One study showed highly statistically significant levels of IL-1 beta with <.001. Rate of tooth movement was correlated with levels of released biomarkers under the influence of vibrational force in 3 studies, but it was found to be significant only in 1 study. It was further observed that vibration does not have any significant reduction in pain and discomfort.


Author(s):  
Roberto Cancio

Military sexual violence (MSV) is a prevalent issue that uniquely affects mission readiness. Although research on MSV and social media is growing, examinations of possible interventions like those employing social media in this population are scant. Given the growing interest in targeting MSV, the present systematic review was conducted. The PRISMA framework was used to conduct a systematic review of MSV and social media ( N = 71). Queries were limited to articles published between 2010 and 2020. SAGE Journals, PubMed, and JSTOR were utilized. Terms and potential combinations were entered into the databases in varying Boolean combinations. Additional recorders were identified for inclusion via the reference sections of relevant records. After removing duplicates from the query results, we selected records of suspected relevance by title and screened abstracts. Finally, articles with relevant abstracts were reviewed thoroughly to determine whether they met inclusion criteria for the review. The employments of military leaders in a social media intervention puts into practice the military’s central values and development of its leadership core. This intervention promotes group solidarity while maximizing conversations around meaningful messages. Findings in this review suggest military leaders could feasibly employ a cost-effective global intervention using social media, as a tool to help actively address MSV.


Author(s):  
Katharina Boldt ◽  
Michaela Coenen ◽  
Ani Movsisyan ◽  
Stephan Voss ◽  
Eva Rehfuess ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to identify interventions targeting children and their caregivers to reduce psychosocial problems in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and comparable outbreaks. The review was performed using systematic literature searches in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and COVID-19-specific databases, including the CDC COVID-19 Research Database, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Database on COVID-19 Research and the Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register, ClinicalTrials.gov, the EU Clinical Trials Register and the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS) up to 25th September 2020. The search yielded 6657 unique citations. After title/abstract and full text screening, 11 study protocols reporting on trials planned in China, the US, Canada, the UK, and Hungary during the COVID-19 pandemic were included. Four interventions targeted children ≥10 years directly, seven system-based interventions targeted the parents and caregivers of younger children and adolescents. Outcome measures encompassed mainly anxiety and depressive symptoms, different dimensions of stress or psychosocial well-being, and quality of supportive relationships. In conclusion, this systematic review revealed a paucity of studies on psychosocial interventions for children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research should be encouraged in light of the expected demand for child mental health management.


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