The Effect of Live Cat and Simulation Cat Therapies on Oncology Patients

Cancer is a disease that requires a long-term struggle with the psychosocial and economic burden it creates on the individual, family and society, bringing with it many health problems. Although chemotherapy treatment is the main treatment method for patients, it can cause some changes in the individual's appearance while treating cancer and many symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, alopecia, and constipation after treatment. At the same time, patients may feel tired, sleepy and depressed after treatment. However, cancer patients and their families experiencing some unknown diagnosis and treatment processes related to cancer also cause them to be unhappy as a result of experiencing some physical, social, emotional and spiritual problems during the treatment.

It is reported in the literature that pet therapy or animal-assisted treatments reduce disease-related symptoms and make patients happy. Pet therapy is an auxiliary non-pharmacological form of treatment that heals physiological and psychological diseases through interactions between animals and humans that meet certain criteria, and stimulates and activates the body mechanisms required for the development of the individual's health behaviors. In the literature, pet therapy studies with oncology patients are quite limited. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the effects of live cat and robotic cat therapies on the symptoms and happiness levels experienced by oncology patients after chemotherapy.

Inclusion criteria

• Criteria for admission to the study are 18≤ of age,
• Agreeing to participate in the research,
• Being conscious of receiving outpatient chemotherapy treatment for 3≤ months, and being able to communicate.
• The criteria included no impairment in mental and cognitive functions of patients/relatives in the live group,
• Patients in the live cat group not having any animal allergies, and the cat group having a cat.

Exclusion criteria

• Not agreeing to participate in the research,
• Being under 18 years of age,
• Having known psychological disorders, having a visual, hearing, or speech disability, and having an animal allergy.
• Also excluded are having a surgical wound (suture, drainage, etc.), neutropenia or severe infection (by resistant bacteria), fever, diarrhea, respiratory symptoms or vomiting during the week before the start of the study.