[What are the obstacles to drawing up a death certificate in a home setting ? A survey of doctors in Normandy]. / Quels freins à l'établissement du certificat de décès à domicile ? Enquête auprès de médecins sur le territoire de Normandie.

INTRODUCTION: Drafting a death certificate is an obligation for any physician called upon to note a death. It has a legal and epidemiological impact. The objective of this study is to highlight the obstacles encountered by professionals when this process takes place in a home setting. METHOD: A study was carried out by means of a questionnaire sent to doctors in the Normandy region. RESULTS: One fifth (20%) of the general practitioners (GPs), 25% of the SAMU practitioners (intervening in mobile emergency throughout the country), 27.3% of SOS doctors (intervening 24 hours a day in the deceased person's home in the absence of a GP) stated that they had at least once refused to establish a death certificate. Only 36.4% of SOS doctors, 62.5% of emergency physicians and 41% of GPs considered the drafting of a death certificate to be one of their mandatory missions. No less than 17% of GPs, 25% of SAMU doctors and 9% of SOS doctors stated that due to lack of time, they were occasionally unable to travel to fill out a death certificate, a factor causing delays that were detrimental, especially for the surviving relatives. We highlighted several other obstacles to the completion of death certificates: the difficulty of completing them accurately without knowledge of the deceased person's history, possible inability of professionals on tight schedules to deal with unforeseen requests and, more rarely, the issues raised by an absence of remuneration. CONCLUSION: Our study highlights major obstacles in the preparation of death certificates, obstacles that should be taken into consideration insofar as they affect the quality of the data collected, and entail ethical challenges.

Impact of head and neck cancer on partner's sociability.

INTRODUCTION: "Sociability" is defined as the range of experiences linking the subject to others. This is the first study to focus specifically on the impact of head and neck cancer on the sociability of patients' partners. METHOD: Data were collected via a dedicated questionnaire sent to patients' partners. The main endpoint was partner's self-assessment of the impact of the patient's disease on the partner's everyday life. The impact on sociability was analyzed with respect to: the circle of friends (friendship environment), unknown environment, known outside environment, necessary environment, and solitary activities. RESULTS: Two hundred and seventy partners responded. Their everyday activities were impacted by the patient's disease in 71.5% of cases. The friendship environment was badly affected in 46.4% of cases. The unknown environment was affected in 44.0% of cases. Social practices related to the known outside environment were affected in 67.8% of cases, and the necessary environment in 26.0%; the number of solitary activities increased in 35.6% of cases. Social impact on patients' partners was thus considerable.