The role of organization of care in GPs' prevention practice.

BACKGROUND: General practitioners (GPs) do not systematically include preventive recommendations in their practice, and some characteristics of health care organization are associated with more systematic prevention. But the characteristics of health care organization may act in a nonuniform manner depending on the type of preventive care. Thus, one characteristic can be positively associated with one type of preventive care and negatively associated with another. Our aim was to investigate the association between health care organization in general practice and different areas of preventive care (immunization and addiction prevention), in search of nonuniform associations. METHODS: We used a representative survey of 1,813 French GPs conducted in 2009. Four preventive care practices were studied: immunization through flu and HPV vaccination, and prevention of addictive behaviors concerning tobacco and alcohol use.Characteristics of GPs' health care organization and the social context of their practice were collected (spatial accessibility to GPs and socioeconomic level of the area of practice). We constructed mixed models to study associations and interactions between the organization variables and preventive care. RESULTS: Four out of five characteristics of GPs' organization have uneven impacts on different types of preventive care (p-interaction < 10-4). For example, number of daily consultations is associated with better immunization prevention but with poorer prevention counseling in addictive behaviors. In contrast, working with digital medical files is uniformly associated with both types of preventive care (OR = 1.29 [1.15-1.45]; P < 10-4). CONCLUSION: An approach centered on specific types of preventive care should help deepen our understanding of prevention and possibly help to identify a new typology for preventive care.

Do vulnerable groups access prevention services? Cervical cancer screening and HIV testing among homeless migrant women in the Paris metropolitan area.

INTRODUCTION: Homeless migrant women, facing adverse living conditions and barriers to legal status, are at risk of cervical cancer, HIV infection and may encounter barriers to screening services. We investigate factors associated with each screening in a population of migrant women in France and aim to determine the mean time since last HIV testing according to duration of residence in France. METHODS: We use data from the DSAFHIR study (Rights and Health of Migrant Women in Emergency Housing) investigating health and migration experience of homeless migrant women housed in emergency housing hotels in the Paris Metropolitan area in 2017. We computed multivariate logistic regression models to investigate no lifetime cervical cancer screening (CCS) and no lifetime HIV test. We used linear regression models to analyze time since last HIV test. RESULTS: We included 469 women. 46% of respondents had no lifetime CCS, 31% had no lifetime HIV test. Both screenings were associated with educational attainment and French proficiency. Compared with duration of residence < 1 year, duration ≥ 7 years was associated with a lower likelihood of no lifetime CCS (adjusted Odd Ratio = 0.17; 95% CI = 0.07-0.39). Compared to women born in North Africa, women born in West (aOR = 0.15; 95% CI = 0.07-0.33) and East Africa (aOR = 0.06; 95% CI = 0.02-0.20) were less likely to have no lifetime HIV test. Time since last HIV test increased for each additional year spent in France (coef = 0.21; 95% CI = 0.09, 0.33). CONCLUSION: While access to CCS remains poor for recent migrants, HIV testing is more likely to occur shortly after migration.

General practitioners who never perform Pap smear: the medical offer and the socio-economic context around their office could limit their involvement in cervical cancer screening.

BACKGROUND: In France, with the growing scarcity of gynecologists and a globally low and socially differentiated coverage of cervical cancer screening (CCS), general practitioners (GPs) are valuable resources to improve screening services for women. Still all GPs do not perform Pap smears. In order to promote this screening among GPs, the characteristics of physicians who never perform CCS should be more precisely specified. Besides already-known individual characteristics, the contextual aspects of the physicians' office, such as gynecologist density in the area, could shape GPs gynecological activities. METHODS: To analyze county (département) characteristics of GPs' office associated with no performance of CCS, we used a representative sample of 1063 French GPs conducted in 2009 and we constructed mixed models with two levels, GP and county. RESULTS: Almost 35% (n = 369) of the GPs declared never performing CCS. GPs working in counties with a poor GP-density per inhabitants were more likely to perform CCS (odds ratio (OR) = 0.52 for each increase of density by 1 GP per 10,000 inhabitants, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.37-0.74). On the contrary, GPs working in counties with an easier access to a gynecologist were more likely not to perform CCS (OR = 1.06 for each increase of density by 1 gynecologist per 100,000 women, 95%CI = 1.03-1.10 and OR = 2.02 if the first gynecologist is reachable in less than 15 min, 95%CI = 1.20-3.41) as well as GPs working in areas with a poverty rate above the national average (OR = 1.66, 95%CI = 1.09-2.54). These contextual characteristics explain most of the differences between counties concerning rates of not performing CCS. CONCLUSIONS: Specific programs should be developed for GPs working in contexts unfavorable to their involvement in CCS.

Disengagement of general practitioners in cervical cancer screening.

In the absence of organized cervical cancer screening (CCS) programs, gynecologists remain principal actors in obtaining a Pap smear, followed by general practitioners (GPs). In France, with the growing scarcity of gynecologists and social inequalities in access to opportunistic screening, GPs are valuable resources for women's gynecologic follow-up. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of GPs who do not perform CCS, analyzing the effect of GPs' sex and their evolution over time. On the basis of data from three cross-sectional surveys conducted among representative samples of French GPs in 1998, 2002, and 2009 (n=5199), we constructed univariate and multivariate logistic mixed models (level 2: county, level 1: GP) with random intercept stratified on GPs' sex to investigate the characteristics of the GPs associated with no practice of CCS ever. Almost one-third of all GPs did not perform CCS ever and it increased with time. Male GPs were always more likely not to perform it (odds ratio=0.50, 95% confidence interval=0.42-0.59). The percentage of GPs not performing CCS increased more markedly among male than among female GPs, and increased more among the youngest age group. Increasingly fewer GPs engage in CCS when the growing scarcity of medical gynecologists calls for more participation. Female GPs remain significantly more active in CCS than male GPs. The participation in CCS is determined differently according to the practitioner's sex.

[To answer rare cancer issues. Geographical analysis of EMS sarcoma cohort in the Rhône-Alpes region]. / Répondre aux enjeux des cancers rares. Approche géographique de la cohorte EMS des sarcomes en région Rhône-Alpes.

Rare cancer issues have not been much explored yet because of their low incidence. That is why epidemiological studies have difficulties in identifying indisputable etiological risk factors. An expert opinion, mainly concentrated in some establishments, is required for these cancers' management. However, on account of the potential remoteness of these therapeutic resources, the patients' way of care remains also unstudied. By means of a geographical analysis of a regional exhaustive cohort of sarcoma, diagnosed in 2006 and 2007 and followed during five years at least, we can make progress on these different issues. Gastro-Intestinal and Stromal Tumors (GIST) occur more frequently in privileged territories while liposarcomas arise in more deprived areas. The association between liposarcomas and areas deprivation is significant (P=0.05). Moreover, pre-operative biopsy and some clinical patient characteristics, age, grade or tumor localization, are associated with an increase in the distance covered by patients for the first-line treatment (p ≤ 0,001). In the scope of an interdisciplinary collaboration, the geographical approach develops some hypothesis for rare cancers research, which must be tested by other larger scale studies.