Motivational interviewing as a means to decrease antimicrobial drug use in animal production

Despite great research progress on how to prevent diseases and improve animal health, preventive measures are not being applied sufficiently. One explanation may be insufficient communication skills by the veterinarians, and our hypothesis is that motivational interviewing (MI) by veterinarians offers a solution.

Motivational interviewing (MI)

MI is an evidence-based, client-centered communication method for stimulating change, which has been successfully used in, for example, smoking cessation, treatment for alcohol abuse and to support people's lifestyle changes.

MI skills can be assessed quantitatively using the validated MI Treatment Integrity Code (MITI) or through Client Language Easy Rating (CLEAR) coding to assess a person's talk about change (in this case, talk about implementing preventive measures). Such, so-called Change Talk, have been shown to have a strong correlation with the person later implementing the change in question. Change Talk are therefore often used in research as an indirect measure of implementation. We use these and other tools in our sub-studies to study two groups of large animal veterinarians, who received MI training either at the start (MI group) or at the end of the project (control group).

In the project, Basal communication in veterinarians engaged in advisory services will be characterized using MITI. We also evaluate a concept for MI training, among other things, by comparing participating veterinarians' MI skills pre- and post training. We will evaluate the effects of MI training on: farmer and veterinarian attitudes towards preventive veterinary medicine, farmer Change Talk, set up of farm health plans and implementation of preventive measures. The project also provides material for investigating reasons why farmers choose or do not choose to follow the veterinarian's advice.

The project explores a new way to reduce antibiotic use and improve animal health.