# Impact of Antimicrobial Stewardship Resources on Companion Animal Veterinarians' Intention and Capability to Prescribe Fewer Antimicrobial Drugs

> **NIH FDA U18** · NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY RALEIGH · 2024 · $44,598

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Since any antimicrobial drug use has the potential to increase resistance, a key goal is to align
antimicrobial drug use (AU) with the prescribing guidelines in veterinary settings. Awareness
alone is inadequate to achieve concordance with prescribing guidelines since other factors,
such as perceived pressure to prescribe by clients, hospital culture, and a lack of confidence in
communicating with clients have been described as barriers to judicious use. Information is
lacking on the impact of available educational resources to reduce veterinarian's intentions to
prescribe antibiotics as well as their confidence that they can align their prescribing to AS
principles. An area of identified antimicrobial overuse in companion animal medicine is canine
acute diarrhea, for which up to 70% of veterinarians have been reported to prescribe or intend
to prescribe metronidazole. These factors make it a crucial area for testing the impact of
targeted resources designed to persuade veterinarians to reduce antimicrobial use.
 To foster antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary settings using training or education
tools, we will use the Theory of Planned Behavior to quantify the knowledge, attitude, subjective
norm (perceived social pressure regarding guidelines), and perceived behavioral control
(perceived ability to follow the guideline) related to prescribing metronidazole for dogs with a
common medical condition (i.e., acute diarrhea). We will explore whether a short educational
video on antimicrobial stewardship or a summary of evidence-based guidance with
accompanying citations can impact veterinarians' opinions on prescribing antibiotics for canine
acute diarrhea and define characteristics of antimicrobial use resources that veterinarians
identify as effective in changing their intention to reduce antimicrobial prescribing for canine
acute diarrhea.
 The impact of these resources will be assessed using a cross-sectional survey of
companion animal veterinarians in the United States randomized to 3 arms (no resource,
educational video, summary of evidence-based guidance) followed by focus groups with
participants drawn from each group to define which aspects of AS resources are effective in
reducing veterinarians' intent to prescribe antimicrobial drugs. The outcome of these aims will
facilitate a greater understanding of the potential impact of AS resources on aligning veterinary
AU with AS guidelines and inform further research into the creation and implementation of
resources to companion animal veterinarians to further the goals of antimicrobial stewardship.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11075621
- **Project number:** 1U18FD008350-01
- **Recipient organization:** NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY RALEIGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Erin Frey
- **Activity code:** U18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $44,598
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-01 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11075621

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11075621, Impact of Antimicrobial Stewardship Resources on Companion Animal Veterinarians' Intention and Capability to Prescribe Fewer Antimicrobial Drugs (1U18FD008350-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11075621. Licensed CC0.

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