Visiting animals in nursing homes

An online survey was sent in September 2015 to 626 randomly selected nursing homes in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. A total of 240 replied (Denmark: 94, Sweden: 72, and Finland: 74). The prevalence of visiting animals amongst the responding nursing homes was very high in all three countries (90%, 94% and 95%, respectively), whereas 63% of Danish, 50% of Swedish and 15% of Finnish nursing homes had resident animals. The prevalence of resident animals was significantly different between Finnish and Danish (FI-DK, X2 = 39.1, p < 0.0001) as well as between Finnish and Swedish nursing homes (FI-SE, X2 = 20.6, p < 0.0001). Cats were the most common resident animals in all three countries. Out of the nursing homes that had resident animals, 91% Finnish, 75% Swedish and 59% Danish nursing homes had cats. Dogs were the most popular visiting animals (100% Danish, 93% Swedish and 93% Finnish nursing homes that had visiting animals). In conclusion, these Nordic countries were similar with regard to the popularity of visiting dogs in nursing homes, and cats were the most common resident animals. The prevalence of visiting animals in nursing homes was equally high, but Finnish nursing homes had significantly fewer resident animals.