The Effect of a Therapy Dog Activity on Employees' Stress, Mood, and Job Satisfaction and Commitment

Stress Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Effect of a Therapy Dog Activity on Employees' Stress, Mood, and Job Satisfaction and Commitment

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Withdrawn

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03849144
• Other study ID #: HM20014106
• Status: Withdrawn
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: March 15, 2019
• Est. completion date: July 12, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: March 2019
• Source: Virginia Commonwealth University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The goal of the current study is to determine if participating in a therapy dog activity is associated with changes in perceived stress, mood, and job satisfaction and commitment. A secondary goal is to explore a potential dose effect of multiple treatments as well as control for novelty effect.

Description:

This study will be conducted at Aetna Headquarters in Hartford, Connecticut. A pre-post repeated measures design will be used to compare study participant outcomes between a treatment (therapy dog activity) and comparison (low impact physical activity) condition. Outcome variables of interest are perceived stress measured by a stress visual analog scale (SVAS), mood measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and job satisfaction and commitment measured by an investigator-developed Job Satisfaction Survey (consisting of a combination of existing validated scales). Pet ownership, attitudes toward dogs measured by the Dog Attitude Scale, and trait stress, measured by the Perceived Stress Scale, will be assessed as moderating variables.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Withdrawn
• Enrollment: 0
• Est. completion date: July 12, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: May 10, 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Current Aetna employees

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals not employed by Aetna. Note:employees are self-selecting to participate, therefore dog fears or allergies are not listed as exclusion criteria.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Job Satisfaction
• Mood
• Stress

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Therapy dog activity
Visiting therapy dogs and their owners, evaluated and registered as therapy dog teams with Pet Partners will be spread around a large room on the Aetna campus. Employees will arrive at scheduled times to visit with the dogs for 15 minutes, talking to the dogs and owners and petting the dogs
• Low impact exercise
The low impact exercise will consist of stretching exercises conducted by a member of Aetna's wellness team in the same room for 15 minutes.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Aetna Headquarters	Hartford	Connecticut
United States	Virginia Commonwealth University	Richmond	Virginia

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Virginia Commonwealth University	Aetna, Inc., Pet Partners

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Single Item Stress Measure	Changes in self reported stress on visual analog scale (VAS) immediately before and after each activity. Scale ranges from "none" to "most severe imaginable" on 15 cm scale.	Baseline to week 3
Primary	20-item Positive and Negative Affect Schedule	Self reported mood immediately before and after each activity. Each item is scored 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). 10 items comprise the positive affect scale with scores ranging from 10 - 50, with higher scores indicating higher positive affect. 10 items comprise the negative affect scale with total scores ranging from 10 - 50, with lower scores indicating lower negative affect.	Baseline to week 3
Secondary	Single Item Stress Measure	Changes in self reported stress on visual analog scale (VAS) after two intervention activities. Scale ranges from "none" to "most severe imaginable" on 15 cm scale.	Baseline to week 5
Secondary	20-item Positive and Negative Affect Schedule	Self reported mood two intervention activities. Each item is scored 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). 10 items comprise the positive affect scale with scores ranging from 10 - 50, with higher scores indicating higher positive affect. 10 items comprise the negative affect scale with total scores ranging from 10 - 50, with lower scores indicating lower negative affect.	Baseline to week 5
Secondary	9-item Job Satisfaction and Commitment Scale	Self reported job satisfaction ( 3 items) and commitment (6 items) at baseline, after the first and last activity. Each item is scored 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Total scores range from 9-45 with higher scores indicating greater job satisfaction and commitment	Baseline to week 5