Abstract
Little is known about the changes occurring after acquiring a service dog (SDPTSD) trained for the management of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms on physical activity and sleep among veterans. To quantify, using actigraphy measures, changes in physical activity and sleep before and after acquiring a SDPTSD. A total of 18 veterans with chronic PTSD wore an actigraph wGT3X-BT during 7 days, 3 months before (T−3) and 9 months after (T+9) acquiring their SDPTSD. They also completed online questionnaires at both measuring times: Life Space Assessment, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Military version and Beck Depression Inventory II. Non-parametric statistics compared results between T−3 and T+9 and Cohen’s d effect sizes (E.S.) determined the magnitude of changes. Veterans remained sedentary during most of their awake time at T+9 (p = 0.173; E.S. = 0.249), whereas the percentage of time dedicated to moderate physical activity (p = 0.038, E.S. = 0.38) and the number of steps/day (p = 0.008; E.S. = 0.49) increased. These changes were accompanied by expanded mobility patterns into their neighborhood (p = 0.002; E.S. = 0.52) and outside of town (p = 0.03, E.S. = 0.36). Actigraphy measures showed no change in sleep parameters despite reported improvements in sleep efficiency (p = 0.006; E.S. = 0.45), quality (p = 0.04, E.S. = 0.35), and disturbances (p = 0.001; E.S. = 0.55). Decreased PTSD (p ≤ 0.001; E.S. = 0.60) and depressive (p ≤ 0.001; E.S. = 0.60) symptoms were reported. Acquiring a SDPTSD represents a promising rehabilitation intervention for veterans with PTSD that improves moderate physical activity and the number of steps/day while reportedly triggering positive changes on mobility patterns, sleep quality, and psychiatric symptoms. The present exploratory trial provides the rationale for studying larger groups of participants in controlled studies over longer periods of time.