Springer Svenja, Lund Thomas Bøker, Corr Sandra A, Sandøe Peter
Messerli Research Institute, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Front Vet Sci. 2024 Jun 19;11:1417927. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1417927. eCollection 2024.
Modern dog and cat owners increasingly use internet resources to obtain information on pet health issues. While access to online information can improve owners' knowledge of patient care and inform conversations with their veterinarian during consultations, there is also a risk that owners will misinterpret online information or gain a false impression of current standards in veterinary medicine. This in turn can cause problems or tensions, for example if the owner delays consulting their veterinarian about necessary treatment, or questions the veterinarian's medical advice. Based on an online questionnaire aimed at dog and cat owners in Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom ( = 2117) we investigated the use of internet resources to find veterinary medical information, the type of internet resources that were used, and whether owner beliefs explain how often they used the internet to find medical information about their pet. Approximately one in three owners reported that they never used internet resources prior to (31.7%) or after (37.0%) a consultation with their veterinarian. However, when owners do make use of the internet, our results show that they were more likely to use it before than after the consultation. The most common internet resources used by owners were practice websites (35.0%), veterinary association websites (24.0%), or 'other' websites providing veterinary information (55.2%). Owners who believe that the use of internet resources enables them to have a more informed discussion with their veterinarians more often use internet resources prior to a consultation, whereas owners who believed that internet resources help them to make the right decision for their animal more often use internet resources after a consultation. The results suggest that veterinarians should actively ask pet owners if they use internet resources, and what resources they use, in order to facilitate open discussion about information obtained from the internet. Given that more than a third of pet owners use practice websites, the findings also suggest that veterinarians should actively curate their own websites where they can post information that they consider accurate and trustworthy.
现代猫狗主人越来越多地利用互联网资源获取有关宠物健康问题的信息。虽然获取在线信息可以提高主人对宠物护理的了解，并在咨询期间为他们与兽医的交流提供参考，但也存在主人会误解在线信息或对当前兽医医学标准产生错误印象的风险。这反过来可能会引发问题或紧张关系，例如主人延迟就必要的治疗咨询兽医，或者质疑兽医的医疗建议。基于一项针对奥地利、丹麦和英国的猫狗主人（n = 2117）的在线调查问卷，我们调查了利用互联网资源查找兽医医学信息的情况、所使用的互联网资源类型，以及主人的信念是否能解释他们使用互联网查找宠物医学信息的频率。约三分之一的主人表示，他们在与兽医咨询之前（31.7%）或之后（37.0%）从未使用过互联网资源。然而，当主人确实使用互联网时，我们的结果表明，他们在咨询之前比之后更有可能使用。主人使用最多的互联网资源是诊所网站（35.0%）、兽医协会网站（24.0%）或提供兽医信息的“其他”网站（55.2%）。那些认为利用互联网资源能使他们与兽医进行更有见地的讨论的主人，在咨询之前更常使用互联网资源，而那些认为互联网资源有助于他们为自己的动物做出正确决定的主人，在咨询之后更常使用互联网资源。结果表明，兽医应积极询问宠物主人是否使用互联网资源以及他们使用哪些资源，以便促进关于从互联网获取的信息的开放讨论。鉴于超过三分之一的宠物主人使用诊所网站，研究结果还表明，兽医应积极管理自己的网站，在上面发布他们认为准确和可信的信息。
