Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The extent by which pet owners follow health care instructions falls within the confines of “compliance”. The success of any given treatment is in part due to the way in which the owner complies with the instructions received from the advising veterinary professional. Studies abroad have found that the preventative dental care sphere suffers from a low compliance rate. Together with the fact that veterinary staff commonly issue advice on preventative dental care, this provided the impetus for undertaking the current research. In conjunction with a review of the relevant literature this study has, by focussing on advice concerning tooth-brushing and complements to tooth-brushing, sought to investigate: the experiences of both pet owners and veterinary staff with regard to pet-owner compliance; the symptoms behind incomplete compliance; and the measures which can be adopted to make it easier for pet owners to follow the advice received. The ultimate objective of this investigation is to produce a tool (or, at least, lay the groundwork) for improving the consultative quality of veterinary staff and, thereby, compliance levels of pet owners.

Utilising a straightforward grading scale (1-5), owners were asked to estimate their level of compliance and how difficult they thought it was to follow the advice they had been given by the advising veterinary professional. Owners were also asked what hindered compliance and what could make compliance easier. For these two questions owners were instructed to mark a minimum of one to a maximum of five of the listed options. Participating staff members were asked the same questions and to mark what they believed corresponded to the majority of the owners they had advised. Data was collected through paper and web-based surveys.

Concerning both compliance levels and how easy-hard it was to implement the advice given, the results revealed significant differences between the medians of the groups. In both cases the median for the staff group was 3 and for the owners, 2. This supports other studies which have similarly found both low compliance levels of pet owners and the overestimation of owner compliance by veterinary staff in preventative dental care. Moreover, through analysis of the written responses, a slight difference was found between the views of the owners and the views of the veterinary staff regarding the causes of non-compliance and what could be done to facilitate future compliance. Ultimately, the key to securing increased pet-owner compliance lies in improving relations and communication between advising veterinary staff and owners. The method of communication and the information relayed must be adapted by veterinary staff to the receiver, especially when concerning risks.

For the findings of the current study to be statistically significant however further research would be required to be undertaken. Further research would also be required to compare compliance levels between veterinary areas. The results of this study do however resemble those found in studies abroad and ought therefore to be considered at least indicative of compliance levels of pet owners across Sweden.