The University of Kentucky Equestrian Athlete (EqA) Initiative, formerly known as the Jockey & Equestrian Initiative, launched an equine care service providers’ (ECSP) research project as a comprehensive survey in April to address equestrian health and wellness. Part of the Sports Medicine Research Institute within UK’s College of Health Sciences, EqA is focused on the health of the equestrian athlete.

The team had been putting the project into place prior to the pandemic in response to recent findings related to the mental health of veterinarians.

In 2019, when Merck Animal Health released survey results looking at all veterinarians’ mental health, the findings have changed discussions around veterinary medical providers as a key population needing attention. The Merck study reported that younger veterinarians demonstrated increased psychological distress, higher suicidal thoughts and attempts, compared to the general U.S. population.

Additionally, 41% of the veterinarians who responded stated they would not recommend going into veterinary sciences as a profession, with the three main reasons being compensation, debt and costs and personal toll of the profession. This survey was a follow-up to a survey from Auburn University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found female veterinarian suicides are 2.4 times higher than the general population. This is similar to female veterinary technicians, who are 1.6-2.3 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. Does animal care type impact these findings? The EqA team is seeking answers through the ECSP project.

The ECSP research project is close to Michaela Keener’s heart, as her eldest sister and professional mentor is a DVM. Keener, MS, is the research administrative coordinator for the Equestrian Athlete Initiative.

Running her own practice in their home state of Minnesota, Keener’s sister (Laurelyn Keener) has shared numerous stories of the stresses and variables influencing vets’ mental, physical and financial well-being. Wanting to serve this valuable community, Tumlin and Keener designed a qualitative study to address these social, behavioral and economic factors.

The primary goal of this study is to develop a profile and encompassing view of work-life and personal life characteristics and practices. Included in the survey are the topics of stress, fatigue, mental health, vacation engagement, medical and adjunctive care, economic impacts of schooling and social media impacts on wellness perceptions. There are four populations included in the survey, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, farriers and specialists with at least 50% equine clientele. Some of the demographic questions include type of travel, frequency of non-standard hours, location of services regionally and type of education that service providers have achieved.

“It’s important to look at ways to improve the resources available to this population of workers, but we need to understand what differences and similarities each specific subgroup is facing on a regional basis,” Keener said.

The information collected will allow researchers to advise professional organizations in order to address some of the issues seen among the different subgroups. Additionally, it will give researchers a base to work off of to continue conducting research needed to help change education, resources and other guidelines to increase health and wellness of equine care service providers. 

Given the national impact of COVID-19, the team created an optional section to evaluate effects of the pandemic on these populations. The research team hopes to use this information to better characterize the group’s unique needs, looking at trends regionally and by state if sufficient data are available.

“Identifying differences of COVID-19 responses by region can inform best practices for these populations to establish responsive strategies to promote health and well-being,” Kimberly Tumlin, PhD, MS, MPH, EqA director and assistant professor in UK’s College of Public Health, said. “We anecdotally know there are vast differences in the number of practices, types of practices and geographical differences in type of work, but having evidence of work practices and how they relate to health perceptions are important to designing education and potential interventions.”

Growing up in northern Minnesota and then living in Wyoming for three years prior to moving to Kentucky in May 2019, Keener has personally observed the diversity of equine care service providers who are working in and across the country.

“I know there are vast differences between practice characteristics and injury history of veterinarians running a single-hand practice in rural Wyoming compared to those working in a surgical unit in a large veterinarian hospital; however, they might still be facing the same stresses of paying off debt, working long hours and how they balance their non-work life,” she said.

These factors are important in determining what types of education and interventions are needed to facilitate work and personal success. This novel research approach sheds light on a community vastly important to equine health and welfare. With the advent of social distancing, equine care service providers have reported to the EqA that they are experiencing more negative social media encounters and have the added impacts of COVID-19 concerns to consider.

"Collectively, we want to capture what our community has brought to our attention—that these critical workers have the need for learning resiliency strategies in addressing their physical, mental and emotional health,” Tumlin said.

The EqA team has worked hard to make sure the sections included in the survey are appropriate for the population. Small groups of equine care service providers were consulted with about each section to ensure that terminology was correct and to validate questions.

“We included sections on social media and substance use because our focus groups suggested they were key factors in both why and how work-life challenges were addressed,” Keener said.

Keener’s veterinarian sister, Laurelyn, has been one of the consultants who provided feedback on the language and topics of the survey.

“A great effort has been made to address the challenges met by professionals in various fields. Hopefully, information gathered as a result of this attention to detail will enlighten many, and foster further discussion and research that benefits the mental health and work-life balance of equine healthcare providers in the future,” Laurelyn said. “The number of suicides within the veterinary profession is alarming, as is the rate at which [especially equine] veterinarians are experiencing burn-out, needs to be addressed, and the EqA Initiative is taking action to make positive changes across the industry.”

This comprehensive survey is available at https://redcap.uky.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=EFF7XENDKA

Kimberly I. Tumlin, PhD, MS, MPH, director of the Equestrian Athlete Initiative and assistant professor within the UK College of Public Health, in conjunction with Michaela Keener, MS, research coordinator within the UK SMRI, College of Health Sciences, provided this information.