[Demography of psychiatrists and attractiveness factors: the example of Franche-Comté]. / Démographie des psychiatres et facteurs d'attractivité?: l'exemple de la Franche-Comté

INTRODUCTION: In France, the challenges of replacing departing psychiatrists with a new generation are compounded by an increased demand for psychiatric care, which threatens the accessibility of health care, particularly in rural and semi-rural areas. The objective of this study was to describe the location of psychiatrists trained in the Franche-Comté region, and to analyze the factors associated with establishing their practice in the region, particularly in the most understaffed areas. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational study, completed by a qualitative investigation with semi-directive interviews with psychiatrists and psychiatry residents. RESULTS: Between 1994 and 2013, 160 students entered psychiatry residencies in Franche-Comté. As of October 2013, 87 of them were full-time psychiatry practitioners and, 57% of them worked in Franche-Comté. The region of practice was associated with their birthplace (p=0.03). The qualitative investigation showed that, apart from family- and quality of life-related factors (work opportunities for the spouse, family closeness, desire to live in urban areas), opportunities to work in a team, implementation of dynamic and innovative projects and values of the establishment were also considered when choosing a site of practice. CONCLUSION: While the current increase in the number of psychiatry residents may respond, in the long run, to health care demographic problems in Franche-Comté, more specific interventions also seem necessary. Creation of time-shared jobs, facilitating the establishment of psychiatric practices within multidisciplinary clinics, task shifting and telemedicine may allow improvement of the psychiatric care offered in Franche-Comté.

Pregnancy vulnerability in urban areas: a pragmatic approach combining behavioral, medico-obstetrical, socio-economic and environmental factors.

Multiple risk factors are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes (APO), but how all these different factors combine and accumulate remains unknown. The objective of this observational retrospective study was to describe the accumulation of multiple vulnerability markers in pregnant women living in an urban area. Women living in Besançon (France) who delivered between 2005 and 2009 were included. Individual data were collected from the obstetrical records while environmental exposures were collected using environmental prediction models. The accumulation of 15 vulnerability markers, grouped into six dimensions (maternal age, smoking, body mass index (BMI), socio-economic, medico-obstetrical and environmental vulnerabilities) was described and analyzed in comparison with four APO. Among the 3686 included women, 20.8% were aged under 20 or over 34 and 21.9% had an extreme pre-pregnancy BMI. 18.8% declared smoking during pregnancy. Women exposed to socio-economic, medico-obstetrical or environmental vulnerability were 14.2%, 31.6% and 42.4% respectively. While 20.6% were not exposed to any marker, 18.8% accumulated three or more dimensions. The risk of APO increased significantly with the cumulative number of vulnerabilities. Define and validate a vulnerability score could be useful to identify vulnerable women, adapt their pregnancy monitoring and help policy makers to implement appropriate education or health promotion programs.

Does low to moderate environmental exposure to noise and air pollution influence preterm delivery in medium-sized cities?

Background: Preterm birth (PB) is an important predictor of childhood morbidity and educational performance. Beyond the known risk factors, environmental factors, such as air pollution and noise, have been implicated in PB. In urban areas, these pollutants coexist. Very few studies have examined the effects of multi-exposure on the pregnancy duration. The objective of this study was to analyse the relationship between PB and environmental chronic multi-exposure to noise and air pollution in medium-sized cities. Methods: A case-control study was conducted among women living in the city of Besançon (121 671 inhabitants) or in the urban unit of Dijon (243 936 inhabitants) and who delivered in a university hospital between 2005 and 2009. Only singleton pregnancies without associated pathologies were considered. Four controls were matched to each case in terms of the mother's age and delivery location. Residential noise and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposures were calculated at the mother's address. Conditional logistic regression models were applied, and sensitivity analyses were performed. Results: This study included 302 cases and 1204 controls. The correlation between noise and NO2 indices ranged from 0.41 to 0.59. No significant differences were found in pollutant exposure levels between cases and controls. The adjusted odds ratios ranged between 0.96 and 1.08. Sensitivity analysis conducted using different temporal and spatial exposure windows demonstrated the same results. Conclusions: The results are in favour of a lack of connection between preterm delivery and multi-exposure to noise and air pollution in medium-sized cities for pregnant women without underlying disease.