The United States veterinary workforce dilemma: are we asking the right questions?

This article explores the ongoing debate about whether there is a workforce shortage in veterinary medicine. Despite numerous discussions, no consensus has been reached on whether the demand for veterinarians and their teams exceeds supply. The authors argue that current public discussions fail to address the core issues.

An examination of US pet owners' use of veterinary services, 2006-2018.

Objectives: Examine US consumer pet-related and veterinary service expenditures and factors influencing US households' use of veterinary services.

Methods: Descriptive analysis on pet-related and veterinary service expenditures and regression analysis on pet owners' use of veterinary services, using data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure from 2006 to 2018, with the sample size of 257,836 households, of which 73,593 had pet expenses.

Results: From 1980 to 2018, the proportion of households with pet-related and veterinary service expenditures increased.

The Economics of Small Animal Veterinary Practice.

Recent economic cycles and unique factors like the COVID-19 pandemic have all affected small animal veterinary practice, changing both demand and supply-side factors. One-time events exacerbated cyclical macroeconomic factors, increasing the highs and worsening the lows. Behind the perceived labor shortage, the mental health concerns, and the challenges of staff turnover in the profession's daily work to meet client expectations and provide the best possible medical care lurks a productivity problem.

The unintended detrimental effects of pursuing a professional vocation: The case of veterinarians.

Pursuing one's life calling can be personally fulfilling and professionally rewarding, but it also requires sacrifice. We provide evidence of a strong vocational drive using veterinary students as a case study and find that they willingly contribute higher monetary donations for helping animals relative to students in other fields. We also find a significant reduction in the cognitive performance of veterinarian students when exposed to an animal-in-need manipulation.

Nonveterinarian staff increase revenue and improve veterinarian productivity in mixed and companion animal veterinary practices in the United States.

Objective: To determine the contributions of veterinarians and support staff to revenue and veterinarian productivity (ie, number of patients seen/full-time-equivalent veterinarian/wk) in private mixed and companion animal practices in the US and identify staff-to-veterinarian labor ratios (SVLRs) that maximized these 2 practice outputs.

Sample: 409 owners of mixed and companion animal practices who participated in the 2020 AVMA Practice Owner Survey.

Procedures: Data regarding owner demographics, practice characteristics, labor (defined as mean total hours worked/wk), and gross revenue in 2019 were obtained from participating practices.

The Economic Cost of Burnout in Veterinary Medicine.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the economic cost of burnout in the veterinary profession and highlight the financial reasons why the industry should address the burnout crisis from an organizational perspective. Using data from 5,786 associate veterinarians in private practice, information was obtained using employment information related to compensation, work hours, hour preferences, and job turnover. Burnout was measured using the Professional Quality of Life Scale and used to calculate conditional probabilities on turnover and reduced working hours due to burnout.

Characteristics of and comparisons between US fourth-year veterinary students graduating with and without educational debt from 2001 through 2020.

Objective: To characterize and compare fourth-year students of US veterinary schools graduating with and without related educational debt (ie, DVM debt) from 2001 through 2020.

Sample: 45,756 fourth-year veterinary students who participated in the annual AVMA Senior Survey from 2001 through 2020.

Procedures: Survey data were summarized for variables hypothesized to be associated with DVM debt.

A census of veterinarians in the United States.

Analysis of the AVMA's electronic membership database provided information on 113,394 veterinarians living in the United States in 2018. At 39%, Millennials represented the highest percentage of the US veterinary workforce, and women (61.7%) outnumbered men (38.

Employment, starting salaries, and educational indebtedness of year-2018 graduates of US veterinary medical colleges.

Mean full-time starting salary among all types of employers combined (private, public, or corporate practice and advanced education programs) was $65,896 in 2018. Excluding salaries for graduates pursuing advanced education, the mean full-time starting salary was $82,425. Mean educational debt accumulated during veterinary school for all respondents (n = 2,758) in 2018 was $152,358 (median, $159,000).

Antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections from foods of animal origin: understanding and effectively communicating to consumers.

Consumers are increasingly interested in the attributes of the food they consume. This includes what is in the food and how it was raised; and at least some consumers are willing to pay a premium for products with specific attributes. However, the current plethora of labels on the market does not adequately address this issue; rather than providing actionable information, most labels add to the consumer confusion.

Critically important antibiotics: criteria and approaches for measuring and reducing their use in food animal agriculture.

Globally, increasing acquired antimicrobial resistance among pathogenic bacteria presents an urgent challenge to human and animal health. As a result, significant efforts, such as the One Health Initiative, are underway to curtail and optimize the use of critically important antimicrobials for human medicine in all applications, including food animal production. This review discusses the rationale behind multiple and competing "critically important antimicrobial" lists and their contexts as created by international, regional, and national organizations; identifies discrepancies among these lists; and describes issues surrounding risk management recommendations that have been made by regulatory organizations on the use of antibiotics in food animal production.

Raised without antibiotics: impact on animal welfare and implications for food policy.

This study assesses the impact of broilers raised without antibiotics and the information gap that exists between consumer perception and production methods. Specifically looking at risk of eye burns, footpad lesions, and airsacculitis, key indicators of animal welfare, bird-level data are collected on the occurrence and severity of each disease state by the type of antibiotic program: no antibiotics ever, nonmedically important antibiotics, or medically important antibiotics. Odds ratios and marginal effects are calculated to understand how the occurrence and severity change with access to medicine.

Consumer response to media information: the case of grapefruit-medicine interaction.

This study measured the effect of media exposure on grapefruit/grapefruit juice consumption changes, in particular grapefruit-medicine interaction. Respondents' attitudes about health news on television and the internet were measured to account for consumers exposed versus not exposed to such information. Results of a sample selection model show that consumer attitudes toward health news were significantly related to exposure to media information.

Altruism, efficiency, and health in the family.

Purpose: The chapter investigates: (1) Do married parents efficiently allocate time to children's health care? (2) Are parents willing to sacrifice consumption for health improvements at an equal rate for all family members? (3) How does family structure affect health trade-offs parents make? (4) Are parental choices consistent with maximization of a single utility function?

Methodology: A model is specified focusing on how parents allocate resources between consumption and goods that relieve acute illnesses for family members. Equivalent surplus functions measuring parental willingness to pay to relieve acute illnesses are estimated using data from a stated-preference survey.

Findings: Results provide limited support for the prediction that married parents allocate time to child health care according to comparative advantage.

The effects of a soft drink tax in the UK.

The majority of the UK population is either overweight or obese. Health economists, nutritionists and doctors are calling for the UK to follow the example of other European countries and introduce a tax on soft drinks as a result of the perception that high intakes contribute to diet-related disease. We use a demand model estimated with household-level data on beverage purchases in the UK to investigate the effects of a tax on soft drink consumption.

The built environment and obesity among low-income preschool children.

In spite of the evidence that adult obesity is influenced by environmental factors, the influence of the environment on childhood obesity remains under-investigated. This paper examines the association of the built environment with the prevalence of obesity in low-income preschool children. Built environment indicators include measures relating to food choice and physical activity.

Inequalities in diet and nutrition.

The inequality of nutrition and obesity re-focuses concern on who in society is consuming the worst diet. Identification of individuals with the worst of dietary habits permits for targeting interventions to assuage obesity among the population segment where it is most prevalent. We argue that the use of fiscal interventions does not appropriately take into account the economic, social and health circumstances of the intended beneficiaries of the policy.

Obesity and diabetes, the built environment, and the 'local' food economy in the United States, 2007.

Obesity and diabetes are increasingly attributed to environmental factors, however, little attention has been paid to the influence of the 'local' food economy. This paper examines the association of measures relating to the built environment and 'local' agriculture with U.S.

Effects of beverage alcohol price and tax levels on drinking: a meta-analysis of 1003 estimates from 112 studies.

Aims: We conducted a systematic review of studies examining relationships between measures of beverage alcohol tax or price levels and alcohol sales or self-reported drinking. A total of 112 studies of alcohol tax or price effects were found, containing 1003 estimates of the tax/price-consumption relationship.

Design: Studies included analyses of alternative outcome measures, varying subgroups of the population, several statistical models, and using different units of analysis.