Effects of Equine-Assisted Activities and Therapies for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Ningkun Xiao (), Khyber Shinwari, Sergey Kiselev, Xinlin Huang, Baoheng Li and Jingjing Qi
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Ningkun Xiao: Department of Psychology, Institution of Humanities, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620075, Russia
Khyber Shinwari: Department of Immunochemistry, Institution of Chemical Engineering, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620075, Russia
Sergey Kiselev: Department of Psychology, Institution of Humanities, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620075, Russia
Xinlin Huang: Department of Psychology, Institution of Humanities, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620075, Russia
Baoheng Li: Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control System, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620002, Russia
Jingjing Qi: Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control System, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg 620002, Russia

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-47

Abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has become a critical public health issue that affects more than 78 million people. In many recent studies, the authors have demonstrated that equine-assisted activities and therapies (EAATs) can substantially improve the social and behavioral skills of children with ASD. However, the qualities of the studies differ, and some authors reached opposite conclusions. In this review, we systematically and objectively examined the effectiveness of EAATs for people with ASD, combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. We searched five databases (PubMed, Scopus, ERIC, ProQuest, and MEDLINE) and added relevant references, and we identified 25 articles for data extraction and analysis. According to our results, EAAT programs can substantially improve the social and behavioral functioning and language abilities of children with ASD. However, among the subdomains, the results were inconsistent. According to the meta-analyses, there were considerable improvements in the social cognition, communication, irritability, and hyperactivity domains, but not in the domains of social awareness, mannerisms, motivation, lethargy, stereotypy, or inappropriate speech. Moreover, there was a lack of sufficient comparative data to conclude that EAAT programs lead to substantial improvements in motor and sensory functioning. In addition, among the included studies, we noted the indicator of whether EAAT programs decreased parental stress and improved family functioning, and although there were four articles in which the researchers considered this aspect, we were unable to draw any conclusions because of the insufficient data and conflicting descriptive evidence. However, we need to consider the improvement in parental mental health as a factor in the effectiveness of this complementary intervention. We hope that in future studies, researchers will focus on family functioning and conduct more randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with blinded assessments using different scales and measures.

Keywords: equine-assisted activities and therapies; autism spectrum disorder; social and behavior function; family function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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