Comparison of methods to assess dog owners' therapeutic compliance.
OBJECTIVE
To compare different methods for assessing the compliance of veterinary clients administering medication to their dogs.


METHODS
Thirty-one owners whose dogs were prescribed amoxycillin-clavulanate, twice and thrice daily, for a duration of five to seven days were recruited from three Sydney veterinary hospitals. Compliance was assessed by electronic monitoring devices, return medication counts, client self-reports and veterinarians' estimation of likely compliance.


RESULTS
Electronic monitoring showed owners administered on average 84% (range 7 to 104%) of prescribed medication to their dogs. Both return medication counts and client self-reports tended to overestimate therapeutic compliance when compared with electronic monitoring. When questioned, the majority of owners (71%) claimed perfect compliance with the prescribed regimen. No correlation was found between veterinarians' estimates of owner compliance and that assessed electronically.


CONCLUSIONS
Electronic monitoring provided valuable information on dose timing and variation, but proved costly and difficult to employ in veterinary practice. Simplicity and low cost of return medication counts makes this method attractive for use in veterinary compliance studies. Client self-reports reliably detected some noncompliers and permitted identification of individual problems or errors. For practical purposes a combination of return medication counts and client self-reports may have merit in future veterinary compliance studies.
Barter
L S
LS
University of Sydney, New South Wales.
Maddison
J E
JE
Watson
A D
AD
D000658:Amoxicillin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000667:Ampicillin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D002969:Clavulanic Acids / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D004285:Dogs; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards / Q000662:veterinary*; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011336:Probability; D012650:Self Disclosure; D013997:Time Factors
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D002969:Clavulanic Acids; D000667:Ampicillin; D000658:Amoxicillin