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Internet users' perception of the importance of signs commonly seen in old animals with age‐related diseases
Author(s) -
Davies M.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
veterinary record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.261
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 2042-7670
pISSN - 0042-4900
DOI - 10.1136/vr.d5512
Subject(s) - library science , perception , citation , the internet , medicine , psychology , computer science , world wide web , neuroscience
UNLESS practices are running a screening programme to detect disease, veterinarians rely on owners to recognise abnormal signs and present their animal to them for examination and diagnosis. Common age-related diseases often present with similar clinical signs such as polydipsia, weight loss and reduced willingness to exercise (see Table 1).View this table:Table 1 Some of the age-related diseases associated with polydipsia, weight loss or reduced willingness to exerciseThe aim of this survey was to ascertain internet users' perception of the seriousness of some of the signs often associated with common age-related disorders. A pop-up survey was designed for visitors to a busy animal health website (www.provet.co.uk). At the time of the survey, this site was getting about 3000 hits per day, and the self-declared profile of visitors to the site based on a separate survey of 701 visitors was as follows: pet owners, 55.9 per cent; medical/veterinary students, 14.1 per cent; veterinarians, 5.7 per cent; school children, 5.6 per cent (three to 12 years of age, 3.6 per cent; 13 to 17 years of age, 2 per cent), other university students, 2.6 per cent; pet breeders, 2.4 per cent; veterinary nurses, 1.9 per cent; horse owners, 1.6 per cent; other medical-related professionals, 1.4 per cent; nurses, 1 per cent; farmers, 0.9 per cent; medical practitioners, 0.6 per cent; horse breeders, 0.3 per cent and others, 6.1 per cent. The majority of visitors to the site were directed from one of the …