Pet-ownership inquiry and cross-species referral are clinically relevant priorities for human and veterinary medical care providers: a cross-sectional survey.

Veterinary providers who link client wellness to patient health show significantly greater comfort initiating cross-species referrals.

This cross-sectional survey investigated the importance that human providers, veterinary providers, and nonproviders place on One Health interprofessional collaboration, with a focus on pet-ownership inquiry and cross-species referral comfort. A total of 1,660 respondents were enrolled between January and February 2025, including 144 human providers, 50 veterinary providers, and 1,466 nonproviders recruited via professional associations, snowball sampling, and a nationally representative panel. Among human providers, pet ownership was the strongest predictor of engagement with One Health practices, significantly associated with greater importance placed on pet-ownership inquiry, cross-species care inquiry, and comfort making cross-species referrals. Specialty human providers assigned significantly lower importance to both inquiries compared to primary care providers, identifying them as a key gap for One Health training. Among veterinary providers, those who viewed client health as a proxy for patient health demonstrated markedly higher comfort with referring clients to human providers (OR, 4.39). These findings suggest that incorporating One Health inquiries—such as pet ownership status and cross-species health questions—into standard intake processes could improve patient and client outcomes. The study highlights the need for targeted One Health education, particularly for specialty human providers, and supports a framework where veterinary professionals actively consider the human-animal health relationship as clinically meaningful.

This summary was distilled by AI and may occasionally misinterpret data. Confirm critical details with the primary literature before clinical application.