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. Procedure Thirty-one owners whose dogs were prescribed amoxycillin-clavulanate, twice and thrice daily, for a duration of five to seven days were recr uited from three Sydney veterinary hospitals. Compliance was assessed by electronic monitoring devices, return medication counts, client sel f-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 medica tion 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 pres cribed regimen. No correlation was found between veterinarians' estima tes of owner compliance and that assessed electronically. Conclusion E lectronic monitoring provided valuable information on dose timing and variation, but proved costly and difficult to employ in veterinary pra ctice. Simplicity and low cost of return medication counts makes this method attractive for use in veterinary compliance studies. Client sel f-reports reliably detected some noncompliers and permitted identifica tion of individual problems or errors. For practical purposes a combin ation of return medication counts and client self-reports may have mer it in future veterinary compliance studies.