Pet Your Stress Away Study (PYSA)

Washington State University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stress, Psychological; Stress, Physiological

Treatments: Behavioral: Animal photos; Behavioral: Observing human-animal interaction; Behavioral: Animal assisted activity

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02758886

13711

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether an animal visitation programs on college campuses are effective in the treatment of college student stress reduction during preparation for final examinations.

Enrollment: 247 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Undergraduate status

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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247 participants in 4 patient groups, including a placebo group

Stress reduction method

Experimental group

Description:

Participants randomized into the PYSA group engaged in a 10 minute direct interaction with the animals (dogs and cats) of the Pet Your Stress Away program

Treatment:

Behavioral: Animal assisted activity

Control

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Participants randomized into the Control group watched a 10 minute slide show of dog and cat photos

Treatment:

Behavioral: Animal photos

Non-treatment

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants randomized into the No-treatment group silently waited for 10 minutes without engaging in any physical or electronic social interactions.

Observation

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Participants randomized into the observation group observed 10 minutes of others in the general PYSA program petting cats and dogs, while they 'waited in line' for there turn.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Observing human-animal interaction