Impact of Messaging on Veterinarians’ Willingness to Implement Means Safety Protocols

Abstract

Veterinarians exhibit an increased risk for suicide compared to the general population, which appears to be partially attributable to their access to and knowledge about pentobarbital – the most common drug used for humane euthanasia. One way to reduce suicide risk for veterinarians is increasing means safety. Storing pentobarbital in an additional lockbox has been demonstrated to be an acceptable and feasible means safety protocol for veterinarians, but additional research is necessary to investigate the best way to advertise this protocol. The current study investigated how messaging influenced veterinarians’ willingness to implement an extra lockbox and their acceptability ratings of the advertisement by randomizing 444 veterinarians to view one of four graphics across two messaging factors: preventing participants’ own suicide versus preventing suicide among their coworkers, and DEA regulations versus empirical data supporting means safety protocols. For willingness, those randomized to the empirical data conditions exhibited a greater increase than those randomized to the DEA conditions. For acceptability, we found statistically significant main effects for both factors, such that those randomized to the coworker or empirical data conditions reported higher acceptability of messaging than those randomized to self or DEA conditions, respectively. Additionally, we tested three moderators (i.e. belief in means substitution; reported likelihood of the participant or a coworker attempting suicide) and found mixed evidence of their impact. Finally, we collected qualitative data from participants on their suggestions for the graphics. Overall, our study demonstrates that means safety advertisements for veterinarians should emphasize both empirical data and protecting coworkers.