Workers forced to perform distressing livestock culling due to disease outbreaks showed reduced levels of stress and improvements in mental health after an equine-assisted apprenticeship course, the researchers report.
The study, published in the journal Health carewas carried out in South Korea, where outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza occur frequently, requiring culling.
Epidemic control work is a formalized effort to prevent and lower the risk of developing or spreading disease, Taewoon Jung and his fellow researchers said.
However, it is inevitably carried out by humans who must kill livestock, resulting in significant negative physical, psychological, mental and social impacts on the people and communities involved.
These negative impacts include extreme stress, anxiety and moral confusion, they said. Waste workers may experience negative emotions, nightmares, or hallucinations, and in severe cases, even develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The likelihood of these Korean control workers seeking professional help of their own free will is slim, they said. Even if they did, there are few professional services to choose from across the country.
The study team set out to explore whether horse-assisted learning was helpful in improving the psychological and emotional functioning of these workers.
A total of 51 people involved in foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu control work participated in 16 equine-assisted learning sessions, with trained horses and led by therapeutic riding professionals.
The course, which took place over eight weeks, included six preparation sessions and 10 sessions of riding activities. The mean age of the participants was 41.2 years.
The program provided experiential learning to increase participants’ social functioning through activities with horses, in an attempt to gain knowledge, self-awareness, empathy, confidence, a sense of accomplishment through problem solving, and increased interpersonal skills.
Each worker was assessed before and after the program in various health domains using recognized assessment tools.
Results showed significant reductions in stress levels, coping style and general health-related quality of life after participation in the program, the researchers reported.
In particular, the workers showed greater vitality, better emotional and social functioning, greater problem-solving ability, and less social avoidance after participation in the program.
Positive changes were seen in several life domains, including mental health and physical aspects, the authors said.
“Differences in quality of life, depending on whether participants had one or more mass sacrifice experiences in the past, especially in terms of stress level, physical activity due to health problems, and vitality, were also essential findings,” they said.
“For example, although the average stress level score decreased after participation in the program, people with one or more mass sacrifice experiences remained at a higher stress level than those without such experiences.
“This finding may indicate the unresolved nature of such traumatic experiences, and it is likely that these workers require additional professional help to cope with their psychological and/or emotional problems.
“This type of psychological torpor can result in lower self-efficacy; people have lower expectations and don’t think they can do anything successfully.”
The observed changes in coping styles seen in the study participants were the most important finding, the researchers said. “Participants’ avoidance tendencies decreased, while problem-solving and help-seeking behaviors improved.”
The positive changes in terms of their ability to cope with stress was a significant result, as it is related to resilience, which is the ability to deal with future stressors in a healthy way.
The authors said their study was conducted more as a pilot and did not follow up on subjects after the program. “However, given the results, we have gained some understanding of the use of horses to help humans become mentally healthy in stressful situations.
“Equine-assisted approaches, such as the equine-assisted learning program used in our study, can be adopted by different countries, regardless of differences in culture or language, because horses have their unique ways of communicating and coordinating differently. nonverbally but efficiently with human behaviors.
Future studies need to include larger numbers of participants, do follow-up studies, and explore other potential mental health problems, such as alcohol or drug use.
A comparison with a control group would be necessary to rule out any external factors that might explain the program’s effectiveness, they said.
The study team consisted of Jung, from Yongin University; Hyoungjin Park, KAIST Korean Academy of Sciences; Jeong-Yi Kwon of Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine; and Sunju Sohn of Cheongju University.
Jung, T.; Park, H.; Kwon, J.-Y.; Sohn, S. The effect of equine-assisted learning on improving stress, health, and coping among quarantine control workers in South Korea. Health 2022, 10, 1564. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10081564
The study, published under a Creative Commons Licensecan be read here.
