Table 1—
Demographic, occupational, and mental health characteristics of veterinarians employed in the United States classified by their responses to 2 statements to assess their attitude toward mental illness.
| Treatment can help people with mental illness lead normal lives | People are generally caring and sympathetic to persons with mental illness | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | Strongly or somewhat agree or undecided (n = 9,231) | Strongly or somewhat disagree (n = 291) | P value* | Strongly or somewhat agree or undecided (n = 5,018) | Strongly or somewhat disagree (n = 4,504) | P value* |
| Demographic | ||||||
| Sex | < 0.001 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Male | 2,815 (30.5) | 119 (40.9) | 1,819 (36.3) | 1,115 (24.8) | ||
| Female | 6,413 (69.5) | 172 (59.1) | 3,198 (63.7) | 3,387 (75.2) | ||
| Age (y) | 0.10 | < 0.001 | ||||
| 20–39 | 3,545 (38.4) | 94 (32.3) | 1,867 (37.2) | 1,772 (39.4) | ||
| 40–59 | 4,369 (47.3) | 154 (52.9) | 2,296 (45.8) | 2,227 (49.5) | ||
| ≥ 60 | 1,316 (14.3) | 43 (14.8) | 855 (17.0) | 504 (11.2) | ||
| Married | 0.07 | < 0.001 | ||||
| No | 2,230 (24.2) | 84 (28.9) | 1,120 (22.3) | 1,194 (26.5) | ||
| Yes | 6,998 (75.8) | 207 (71.1) | 3,896 (77.7) | 3,309 (73.5) | ||
| Children | 0.44 | < 0.001 | ||||
| No | 3,943 (42.8) | 117 (40.5) | 1,956 (39.0) | 2,104 (46.8) | ||
| Yes | 5,277 (57.2) | 172 (59.5) | 3,057 (61.0) | 2,392 (53.2) | ||
| Occupational | ||||||
| Practice experience (y) | 0.01 | < 0.001 | ||||
| 1–9 | 3,158 (34.2) | 76 (26.1) | 1,641 (32.7) | 1,593 (35.4) | ||
| 10–19 | 2,283 (24.7) | 93 (32.0) | 1,142 (22.8) | 1,234 (27.4) | ||
| 20–29 | 1,996 (21.6) | 67 (23.0) | 1,106 (22.1) | 957 (21.3) | ||
| ≥ 30 | 1,788 (19.4) | 55 (18.9) | 1,126 (22.5) | 717 (15.9) | ||
| Practice type | 0.38 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Small animal | 6,342 (68.8) | 190 (65.5) | 3,334 (66.5) | 3,198 (71.1) | ||
| Large animal | 202 (2.2) | 6 (2.1) | 131 (2.6) | 77 (1.7) | ||
| Equine | 272 (3.0) | 12 (4.1) | 171 (3.4) | 113 (2.5) | ||
| Mixed animal | 999 (10.8) | 37 (12.8) | 618 (12.3) | 418 (9.3) | ||
| Academia | 423 (4.6) | 15 (5.2) | 221 (4.4) | 217 (4.8) | ||
| Government | 166 (1.8) | 9 (3.1) | 92 (1.8) | 83 (1.9) | ||
| Other† | 815 (8.8) | 21 (7.2) | 444 (8.9) | 392 (8.7) | ||
| Role in practice | 0.09 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Owner | 3,471 (37.7) | 126 (43.3) | 2,020 (40.3) | 1,577 (35.1) | ||
| Associate | 4,128 (44.8) | 110 (37.8) | 2,138 (42.7) | 2,100 (46.7) | ||
| Relief | 419 (4.6) | 17 (5.8) | 2,11 (4.2) | 225 (5.0) | ||
| Other or do not work in a veterinary practice | 1,193 (13.0) | 38 (13.1) | 640 (12.8) | 591 (13.2) | ||
| Solo practitioner | < 0.001 | 0.08 | ||||
| Yes | 1,648 (17.9) | 79 (27.2) | 877 (17.6) | 850 (19.0) | ||
| No | 7,538 (82.1) | 211 (72.8) | 4,114 (82.4) | 3,635 (81.1) | ||
| Member of a veterinary association | 0.07 | < 0.001 | ||||
| No | 323 (3.5) | 16 (5.5) | 146 (2.9) | 193 (4.3) | ||
| Yes | 8,905 (96.5) | 275 (94.5) | 4,871 (97.1) | 4,309 (95.7) | ||
| Mental health | ||||||
| Serious psychological distress | < 0.001 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 859 (9.3) | 64 (22.0) | 310 (6.2) | 613 (13.6) | ||
| No | 8,372 (90.7) | 227 (78.0) | 4,708 (93.8) | 3,891 (86.4) | ||
| Mental health treatment | 0.19 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 1,978 (21.4) | 53 (18.2) | 909 (18.1) | 1,122 (24.9) | ||
| No | 7,249 (78.6) | 238 (81.8) | 4,107 (81.9) | 3,380 (75.1) | ||
| During veterinary school | ||||||
| Depression | < 0.01 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 1,574 (17.1) | 70 (24.1) | 662 (13.2) | 982 (21.8) | ||
| No | 7,653 (82.9) | 221 (75.9) | 4,354 (86.8) | 3,520 (78.2) | ||
| Suicidal ideation | < 0.001 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 535 (5.8) | 31 (10.7) | 207 (4.1) | 359 (8.0) | ||
| No | 8,694 (94.2) | 260 (89.3) | 4,810 (95.9) | 4,144 (92.0) | ||
| Suicide attempt | 0.68 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 52 (0.6) | 2 (0.7) | 14 (0.3) | 40 (0.9) | ||
| No | 9,179 (99.4) | 289 (99.3) | 5,004 (99.7) | 4,464 (99.1) | ||
| After graduating from veterinary school | ||||||
| Depression | < 0.001 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 3,205 (34.7) | 132 (45.5) | 1,437 (28.7) | 1,900 (42.2) | ||
| No | 6,020 (65.3) | 158 (54.5) | 3,577 (71.3) | 2,601 (57.8) | ||
| Suicidal ideation | < 0.001 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 1,683 (18.3) | 102 (35.1) | 647 (12.9) | 1,138 (25.3) | ||
| No | 7,541 (81.8) | 189 (65.0) | 4,367 (87.1) | 3,363 (74.7) | ||
| Suicide attempt | 0.01 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 124 (1.3) | 10 (3.4) | 41 (0.8) | 93 (2.1) | ||
| No | 9,104 (98.7) | 281 (96.6) | 4,976 (99.2) | 4,409 (97.9) | ||
Data represent number (%) of respondents. The total number of observations (and, hence, the denominators for column percentage calculations) varies for some characteristics because of unknown or missing responses.
*
Based on c2 test or 2–sided Fisher exact test (when an expected cell frequency was < 5).
†
Options represented by ≤ 1% respondents (ie, shelter practice, zoo, exotics, laboratory animal, scientific research, and regulatory).
Data were obtained from a previously reported cross–sectional survey.6
Values of P < 0.05 were considered significant.