Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, P.O. Box 8146 Dep., NO-0033 Oslo, Norway.
Prev Vet Med. 2013 Oct 1;112(1-2):76-89. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2013.07.004. Epub 2013 Aug 12.
National databases for dairy cows in the four Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, have been found to capture varying proportions of disease events on farm. A variation in the thresholds of veterinarians to initiate medical treatment may be a reason for this. Studying these thresholds may increase the understanding of prudent use of antibiotics. The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether Nordic veterinarians, on a between country-level, vary in their intention to start medical treatment of a dairy cow with mild clinical mastitis, on the same day as making the diagnosis. The threshold for initiating treatment was quantified as an intention score. Secondary, underlying behavioural components of the intention score was studied within each country. A social psychology model, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), was used to design a questionnaire that was distributed to 1047 veterinarians in cattle practice in the four countries during autumn 2010. The response rate was around 50% in all the countries, and 543 observations were retained for analysis. The between-country differences in intention were tested with one-way analysis of variance. Multivariable linear regression was used to estimate the proportion of variability in intention explained by the three behavioural components, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. The Spearman rank correlations between specific beliefs about the behaviour and intention scores were estimated to find beliefs of high influence on the decision to treat or not. Intention scores differed between all countries (p<0.05) except between NO and SE (p=0.06). The mean intention scores were 0.71, 0.42, 0.58 and 0.50 in DK, FI, NO and SE, respectively. As measured by the adjusted R(2) in linear regression models, the underlying behavioural components of the TPB explained 0.37, 0.41, 0.40 and 0.48 of the variation in intention scores in DK, FI, NO and SE, respectively. Attitude was the most important predictor in DK, NO and SE, but perceived behavioural control was most important in FI. In all countries the specific attitude belief of highest influence was that starting treatment the same day as diagnosing a case of mild clinical mastitis gives the best result, compared to delaying treatment. The varying intentions of veterinarians to initiate medical treatment are likely to influence centrally registered mastitis incidence. This study has given an improved understanding of this behaviour, which may be useful in intervention studies or campaigns aiming at prudent use of antibiotics on dairy farms.
在丹麦、芬兰、挪威和瑞典这四个北欧国家，奶牛的国家数据库已经发现，在农场层面上，疾病事件的捕获比例各不相同。兽医启动医疗治疗的门槛的差异可能是造成这种情况的原因之一。研究这些门槛可以提高对谨慎使用抗生素的理解。本研究的主要目的是调查北欧兽医在国家间是否存在差异，即他们是否愿意在同一天对患有轻度临床乳腺炎的奶牛进行医疗治疗。启动治疗的门槛量化为意向评分。其次，在每个国家内研究意向评分的潜在行为组成部分。社会心理学模型，计划行为理论（TPB），被用来设计一个问卷，该问卷在 2010 年秋季分发给四个国家的奶牛实践中的 1047 名兽医。所有国家的回复率约为 50%，保留了 543 个观察值进行分析。通过单向方差分析测试了国家间意向的差异。多元线性回归用于估计态度、主观规范和感知行为控制这三个行为组成部分对意向的可变性的解释比例。使用 Spearman 秩相关系数来估计行为的具体信念与意向评分之间的相关性，以发现对是否治疗的决定有高影响的信念。意向评分在所有国家之间都存在差异（p<0.05），除了挪威和瑞典之间（p=0.06）。丹麦、芬兰、挪威和瑞典的平均意向评分分别为 0.71、0.42、0.58 和 0.50。在线性回归模型中，通过调整 R(2)测量，TPB 的潜在行为组成部分分别解释了丹麦、芬兰、挪威和瑞典意向评分变化的 0.37、0.41、0.40 和 0.48。在丹麦、挪威和瑞典，态度是最重要的预测因素，但在芬兰，感知行为控制是最重要的。在所有国家中，对决定是否治疗影响最大的具体态度信念是，与延迟治疗相比，在诊断轻度临床乳腺炎病例的同一天开始治疗会产生最佳结果。兽医启动医疗治疗的意愿各不相同，这可能会影响中央登记的乳腺炎发病率。本研究提高了对这种行为的理解，这可能对在奶牛场实施谨慎使用抗生素的干预研究或运动有用。
