IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i23p4835-d292959.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Riding into Health: A Case Study on an Equine-Assisted Childhood Obesity Intervention

Author

Listed:
  • Katy Schroeder

    (Department of Animal and Food Sciences, College of Agricultural and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA)

  • Jason Van Allen

    (Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University; Lubbock, TX 79409, USA)

  • Emily Dhurandhar

    (Department of Kinesiology and Sports Management, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University; Lubbock, TX 79409, USA)

  • Brittany Lancaster

    (Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University; Lubbock, TX 79409, USA)

  • Zohal Heidari

    (Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University; Lubbock, TX 79409, USA)

  • Kandis Cazenave

    (Department of Animal and Food Sciences, College of Agricultural and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA)

  • Dianna Boone

    (Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University; Lubbock, TX 79409, USA)

  • Phyllis Erdman

    (Department of Kinesiology and Educational Psychology, College of Education, Washington State University; Pullman, WA 99164, USA)

Abstract

In this article, we present an exploratory case study that describes the initial outcomes of the Equine-Assisted Positively Fit (EAPF) program. Children with obesity and their caregivers were recruited to participate in the eight-session program. Results indicated that treatment completers ( n = 2) had a decrease in fat mass and fat mass percentage and an increase in fat-free mass and fat-free mass percentage. Moreover, results from accelerometer measurements of physical activity indicated that participants increased their moderate to vigorous physical activity, as well as reported increased self-efficacy for physical activity. Qualitative data from the post-intervention focus group suggested children perceived the treatment acceptable and enjoyable. Findings from this study provide support for future investigations on the feasibility and potential efficacy of pairing children and their caregivers with horses to accomplish health-related goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Katy Schroeder & Jason Van Allen & Emily Dhurandhar & Brittany Lancaster & Zohal Heidari & Kandis Cazenave & Dianna Boone & Phyllis Erdman, 2019. "Riding into Health: A Case Study on an Equine-Assisted Childhood Obesity Intervention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:23:p:4835-:d:292959
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/23/4835/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/23/4835/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adela Hruby & Frank Hu, 2015. "The Epidemiology of Obesity: A Big Picture," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 33(7), pages 673-689, July.
    2. Rebecca Utz, 2014. "Walking the Dog: The Effect of Pet Ownership on Human Health and Health Behaviors," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 327-339, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aubrey H. Fine, 2020. "The Psycho-Social Impact of Human-Animal Interactions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-4, June.
    2. María del Carmen Rodríguez-Martínez & Alba De la Plana Maestre & Juan Antonio Armenta-Peinado & Miguel Ángel Barbancho & Natalia García-Casares, 2021. "Evidence of Animal-Assisted Therapy in Neurological Diseases in Adults: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim, Youngmi & Lee, Haenim & Park, Aely, 2020. "Adverse childhood experiences, economic hardship, and obesity: Differences by gender," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Wendy Hens & Dirk Vissers & Nick Verhaeghe & Jan Gielen & Luc Van Gaal & Jan Taeymans, 2021. "Unsupervised Exercise Training Was Not Found to Improve the Metabolic Health or Phenotype over a 6-Month Dietary Intervention: A Randomised Controlled Trial with an Embedded Economic Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-13, July.
    3. Cezary Wojtyla & Pawel Stanirowski & Pawel Gutaj & Michal Ciebiera & Andrzej Wojtyla, 2021. "Perinatal Outcomes in a Population of Diabetic and Obese Pregnant Women—The Results of the Polish National Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-14, January.
    4. Arnulf Josef Hartl & Johanna Freidl & Daniela Huber, 2023. "Effects of Alpine Natural Health Resources on Human Health and Wellbeing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-3, June.
    5. Rafael M. Tassitano & Robert G. Weaver & Maria Cecília M. Tenório & Keith Brazendale & Michael W. Beets, 2020. "Clusters of non-dietary obesogenic behaviors among adolescents in Brazil: a latent profile analysis," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 65(6), pages 881-891, July.
    6. Ivan Parise & Penelope Abbott & Steven Trankle, 2021. "Drivers to Obesity—A Study of the Association between Time Spent Commuting Daily and Obesity in the Nepean Blue Mountains Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Cecilia Alcantara Braga Garcia & Karina Cardoso Meira & Alessandra Hubner Souza & Ana Laura de Grossi Oliveira & Nathalia Sernizon Guimarães, 2024. "Obesity and Associated Factors in Brazilian Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Representative Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(8), pages 1-23, August.
    8. Sinead O’Mahony & Clare B. O’Donovan & Nuala Collins & Kevin Burke & Gerardine Doyle & Eileen R. Gibney, 2023. "Reformulation of Processed Yogurt and Breakfast Cereals over Time: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-15, February.
    9. Manou Anselma & Mai Jeanette Maidy Chinapaw & Teatske Maria Altenburg, 2018. "Determinants of Child Health Behaviors in a Disadvantaged Area from a Community Perspective: A Participatory Needs Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, March.
    10. Silvia Coronado-Ferrer & Antonia Ferrer-Sapena & Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent & Juan Carlos Valderrama Zurián & Lourdes Castelló Cogollos, 2022. "Global Trends in Scientific Research on Pediatric Obesity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Rafael M. Tassitano & Robert G. Weaver & Maria Cecília M. Tenório & Keith Brazendale & Michael W. Beets, 0. "Clusters of non-dietary obesogenic behaviors among adolescents in Brazil: a latent profile analysis," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 0, pages 1-11.
    12. John P. Robinson & Elena Tracy & Yoonjoo Lee, 2015. "Cruising through the millennium - 2003-13 changes in American Daily life," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 12(1), pages 133-152, December.
    13. Nathalia A. B. Souza & Karina A. Rimes-Dias & Janaina C. Costa & Daniela S. Canella, 2022. "Weight Gain and Change in Body Mass Index after Age 20 in the Brazilian Population and Associated Sociodemographic Factors: Data from the National Health Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-14, March.
    14. Timo Toivonen, 2015. "Spousal influence in time use - On book reading, highbrow culture attendance and computer use," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Hongli Li & Yuanzhong Xu & Yanyan Jiang & Zhiying Jiang & Joshua Otiz-Guzman & Jessie C. Morrill & Jing Cai & Zhengmei Mao & Yong Xu & Benjamin R. Arenkiel & Cheng Huang & Qingchun Tong, 2023. "The melanocortin action is biased toward protection from weight loss in mice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    16. Pallavi Kompella & Guliang Wang & Russell E. Durrett & Yanhao Lai & Celeste Marin & Yuan Liu & Samy L. Habib & John DiGiovanni & Karen M. Vasquez, 2024. "Obesity increases genomic instability at DNA repeat-mediated endogenous mutation hotspots," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
    17. Alessio Pellegrino & Samuele Bacci & Francesco Guido & Andrea Zoppi & Loira Toncelli & Laura Stefani & Maria Boddi & Alessandra Modesti & Pietro Amedeo Modesti, 2023. "Interaction between Geographical Areas and Family Environment of Dietary Habits, Physical Activity, Nutritional Knowledge and Obesity of Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-9, January.
    18. Claire Beale & Erica L. Rauff & Wendy J. O’Brien & Sarah P. Shultz & Philip W. Fink & Rozanne Kruger, 2020. "Are all Sedentary Behaviors Equal? An Examination of Sedentary Behavior and Associations with Indicators of Disease Risk Factors in Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-13, April.
    19. Morgan M. Wright & Pamela Schreiner & B. R. Simon Rosser & Elizabeth J. Polter & Darryl Mitteldorf & William West & Michael W. Ross, 2019. "The Influence of Companion Animals on Quality of Life of Gay and Bisexual Men Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-8, November.
    20. Hui Chin Koo & Lay Kim Tan & Geok Pei Lim & Chee Cheong Kee & Mohd Azahadi Omar, 2023. "Obesity and Its Association with Undiagnosed Diabetes Mellitus, High Blood Pressure and Hypercholesterolemia in the Malaysian Adult Population: A National Cross-Sectional Study Using NHMS Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-18, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:23:p:4835-:d:292959. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.