Plush Animals and the Elderly

We used an experimental design to test the hypotheses that the introduction of self-selected, plush animals to male residents of an intermediate-skill nursing home care unit will improve health self-concept, life satisfaction, psychologic well-being, psychosocial and mental function, and will decrease depression. The Roy adaptation model provided the theoretical basis; the plush animals were viewed as focal stimuli to improve environmental adaptation. We tested 62 subjects (mean age 75) from a Veterans Administration medical center. There were significant positive changes for the experimental group in all six variables from pretest to first posttest eight weeks later. The improvement was maintained to second posttest at 16 weeks except for mental function. The six variables are viewed as indicators of quality of psychosocial life.