Revista Brasileira de Educação Especial
Print version ISSN 1413-6538On-line version ISSN 1980-5470
Abstract
GOMES, Crystian Moraes Silva; SEMEDO, Amanda Doring; CAETANO, Maria Eduarda Teixeira and TOKUMARU, Rosana Suemi. ANIMAL ASSISTED INTERVENTIONS: REVISION AND EVALUATION OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES. Rev. bras. educ. espec. [online]. 2023, vol.29, e0155. Epub Oct 17, 2023. ISSN 1980-5470. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-54702023v29e0155.
This study aimed to: (I) to identify the state of the art of publications on animal-assisted interventions (AAI) in Latin America; and (II) to critically evaluate the methodological quality of clinical studies on AAI in Latin America. This is a scoping review. Data were collected from Redalyc, SciELO, LILACS, CAPES Journal Portal and BIREME. Eligibility criteria allowed the inclusion of 146 articles, 34 of which were submitted to the Cochrane Collaboration Method of Critical Appraisal of Studies. The studies covered the period from 1997 to 2021, mainly produced in Brazil, and designed as review, case, and descriptive studies. Regarding clinical studies, the child population was the largest population submitted to AAI. Horses and canidae represented the main cotherapists species. A significant part of the intervention studies demonstrated replicability criteria; however, there was a lack of methodological rigor, limiting the possibility of evaluating the effectiveness of the interventions. This study points to the potential use of AAI in Latin America and an increase in the number of studies over time; however, it is suggested that future studies should emphasize the use of experimental methodology, such as randomized clinical trials, in order to allow the evaluation of the effectiveness of AAI.
Keywords : Animal assisted interventions; Hippotherapy; Latin America; Scope review.