The feasibility of brief dog-assisted therapy on university students stress levels: the PAwS study

Figures & data

Table 1. The demographic data of the participants.

Total participants n	131
Age
Range	18–35
Mean (SD)	19.92 (2.60)
Course
Undergrad n (%)	121 (92.4)
Postgrad n (%)	10 (7.6)
Gender
Male n (%)	35 (26.7)
Female n (%)	96 (73.3)
Nationality
UK n (%)	97 (74.0)
EU n (%)	19 (14.5)
International n (%)	15 (11.5)
Pet ownership
Pet at home n (%)	87 (66.4)
Pet at Uni n (%)	3 (2.3)
No pet n (%)	41 (31.3)

85% of participants were aged 18–21.

Table 2. Paired t tests to compare means of the pre/post measures.

	Mean pre (SD)	Mean post (SD)	t test p value	Cohen’s d	r
Systolic BP	131 (12.14)	129 (12.75)	0.035	0.16	0.08
Diastolic BP	80 (8.31)	78 (9.62)	0.001	0.22	0.11
State anxiety inventory	43.16 (10.56)	29.94 (9.94)	<0.001	1.29	0.54

Figure 1. A Jacobson plot showing the statistically reliable and clinically significant change for all the participants. The central dotted line shows no change, the dashed tramlines either side of the central line show statistical reliability. Any data point outside these lines is considered to be reliable change and not due to measurement error. As a lower score on the state anxiety inventory denotes less anxiety a data point below the central line is a participant whose anxiety decreased after spending time with the dogs.