*4.2. Search Strategy*

Studies into the effect of AAI and PRI on dementia patients published between January 2000 and August 2019 were analyzed. Data were collected from three electronic databases—the Cochrane Library, Embase, and PubMed (Figure 5). The search terms used were "Dementia" AND "animal-assisted therapy OR animal-assisted activity OR service animal programs OR animal OR robot". A total of 5364 studies were initially identified, and, after the exclusion of 4858 nonclinical trials, 506 studies underwent further analysis. An additional 506 studies were then excluded: 1 because the original text was unavailable, 9 because they were written in a language other than English, 173 because they were not RCTs, 216 because they were duplicates, 92 because they were inappropriate for the purpose of our study/because they were unsuitable based on a review of their titles and abstracts, and 7 because data were missing or disorganized. Ultimately, nine studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis.

**Figure 5.** Flow chart of the systematic literature review.
