Animal-Assisted Visitation Program Chlorhexidine Trial

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Trial end date: 2023-05-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Hospital-based Animal-Assisted visitation programs are important complementary therapies, but concerns with infection control may challenge the sustainability of these programs. Pilot data suggest that a low-cost chlorhexidine-based intervention targeted to the dogs involved in the visitation programs holds high potential to prevent pathogen transmission during sessions. In this study, the following aims will be tested: 1) To identify program-related risk factors for acquisition of hospital-associated pathogens by pediatric patients during animal-assisted intervention (AAI) sessions during an initial run-in phase of no intervention; 2) To determine the effect of chlorhexidine (CHX)-based interventions on acquisition of hospital-associated pathogens and microbial communities by patients during AAI sessions via a multicenter randomized controlled trial; and 3) To determine whether the specific benefits achieved by the visitation program, i.e. reduction in blood pressure, heart rate and self-reported pain and anxiety, are impacted by the interventions.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Collaborators: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); University of Pennsylvania
• Treatments: Chlorhexidine; Chlorhexidine gluconate

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children between the ages of 3 and 17 years

• Cleared by physician to participate in a hospital-based animal-assisted visitation program session with any enrolled dog

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children who report sensitivity to chlorhexidine products

• Children who report allergy to dogs or sensitivity to dog allergen