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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Issues associated with the application to veterinarians of a mailed questionnaire regarding lower respiratory-tract disease in racehorses.

Journal:
Preventive veterinary medicine
Year:
2000
Authors:
Christley, R M et al.
Affiliation:
Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences · Australia
Species:
horse

Plain-English summary

This study looked at how veterinarians feel about diagnosing and treating lower respiratory-tract disease in racehorses. A questionnaire was sent out to 648 veterinarians in Australia, and after a couple of mailings and a phone call, 467 of them responded, which is about 72%. Out of those responses, 354 were useful for the study. Many veterinarians who didn't complete the questionnaire said it was because they didn't work with horses. Overall, the method used to gather responses worked fairly well, even though it was a bit different from what has been done in the past.

Abstract

This study evaluated a questionnaire investigating the attitudes and behaviours of veterinarians regarding the cause, diagnosis and treatment of lower respiratory-tract disease in racehorses. The questionnaire was sent to all non-student members (648) of the Australian Equine Veterinary Association: two mailings and a single telephone contact (each separated by four weeks). Subsequent phases were only administered to those who had not responded to earlier phases. In total, 467 (72.1%) of the 648 mailed questionnaires were returned. Of these, 354 were usable. The remaining 113 respondents gave various reasons for not completing the questionnaire; the most common (68%) was that horses were not a component of their practice. Those respondents working primarily with horses required fewer phases to return the questionnaire. Although deviating from previously described questionnaire designs, the described protocol provided a reasonable response rate.

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Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10913801/