Age, Male Gender, and Social Deprivation Are Associated with a Lower Rate of Insulin Pump Therapy Initiation in Adults with Type 1 Diabetes: A Population-Based Study.

Objectives: The objective of this population-based study was to identify factors associated with insulin pump therapy initiation in adults with insulin-requiring diabetes in France in 2015. Method: People with insulin-requiring diabetes and their characteristics were identified from the national health data system. Factors associated with insulin pump therapy initiation were identified by logistic regression analysis. Results: The study focused on 614,913 adults with diabetes treated by multiple daily injections before 2015: 4083 of them initiated insulin pump therapy during the year (71% of them had type 1 diabetes, T1D). Factors associated with insulin pump therapy initiation were the number of consultations with an endocrinologist within the past 2 years (2 vs. 0, odds ratio [OR] = 1.5, P < 0.01), the presence of a chronic cardiovascular or neurovascular disease (OR = 1.6 for T1D, OR = 1.3 for type 2 diabetes [T2D], P < 0.01) and treatment with antidepressants/anxiolytics (OR = 1.2 for T1D, OR = 1.4 for T2D, P < 0.01). The other determinants were female gender (OR = 1.5, P < 0.01) and history of hospitalization for acute metabolic complications (OR = 1.14, P < 0.01) in T1D. Factors associated with less insulin pump therapy initiation were age, duration of diabetes, end-stage renal disease, and social deprivation (OR = 0.662, P < 0.01, T1D only). Conclusion: Predictive factors of insulin pump therapy initiation in people with insulin-requiring diabetes in 2015 in France were globally consistent with clinical practice guidelines. Age, male gender, and social deprivation are still associated with a lower rate of insulin pump therapy initiation in adults with T1D.

Can General Practitioners Be More Productive? The Impact of Teamwork and Cooperation with Nurses on GP Activities.

The integration of primary care organizations and interprofessional cooperation is encouraged in many countries to both improve the productive and allocative efficiency of care provision and address the unequal geographical distribution of general practitioners (GPs). In France, a pilot experiment promoted the vertical integration of and teamwork between GPs and nurses. This pilot experiment relied on the staffing and training of nurses; skill mixing, including the authorization to shift tasks from GPs to nurses; and new remuneration schemes. This article evaluates the overall impact of this pilot experiment over the period 2010-2017 on GP activities based on the following indicators: number of working days, patients seen at least once, patients registered, and visits delivered. We control for endogeneity and reduce selection bias by using a case-control design combining coarsened exact matching and difference-in-differences estimates on panel data. We find a small positive impact on the number of GP working days (+1.2%) following enrollment and a more pronounced effect on the number of patients seen (+7.55%) or registered (+6.87%). However, we find no effect on the number of office and home visits. In this context, cooperation and teamwork between GPs and nurses seem to improve access to care for patients.

An evaluation of the 1987 French Disabled Workers Act: better paying than hiring.

This paper presents the first evaluation of the French Disabled Workers Act of 1987, which aimed to promote the employment of disabled people in the private sector. We use a panel data set, which includes both the health and the labour market histories of workers. We account both for unobserved heterogeneity and for the change in the disabled population over time. We find that the law had a negative impact on the employment of disabled workers in the private sector. This counterproductive effect likely comes from the possibility to pay a fine instead of hiring disabled workers.

A comparison of HAS & NICE guidelines for the economic evaluation of health technologies in the context of their respective national health care systems and cultural environments.

BACKGROUND: Health technology assessment (HTA) has been reinforced in France, notably with the introduction of economic evaluation in the pricing process for the most innovative and expensive treatments. Similarly to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England, the National Authority for Health (HAS), which is responsible for economic evaluation of new health technologies in France, has published recommendations on the methods of economic evaluation. Since economic assessment represents a major element of HTA in England, exploring the differences between these methodological guidelines might help to comprehend both the shape and the role economic assessment is intended to have in the French health care system. METHODS: Methodological guidelines for economic evaluation in France and England have been compared topic-by-topic in order to bring out key differences in the recommended methods for economic evaluation. RESULTS: The analysis of both guidelines has revealed multiple similarities between France and England, although a number of differences were also noted regarding the elected methodology of analysis, the comparison of studies' outcomes with cost-effectiveness thresholds, the study population to consider, the quality of life valuation methods, the perspective on costs, the types of resources considered and their valuation, the discount rates to apply in order to reflect the present value of interventions, etc. To account for these differences, modifications will be required in order to adapt economic models from one country to the other. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in HTA assessment methods occur in response to different challenges determined by the different philosophical and cultural considerations surrounding health and welfare as well as the political considerations regarding the role of public policies and the importance of their evaluation.

Why patients of low socioeconomic status with mental health problems have shorter consultations with general practitioners.

OBJECTIVE: Poor people receive shorter consultations in general practice than more affluent people. Our aim was to study the two reasons generally advanced for this for patients consulting with mental health problems: people of low socioeconomic status (SES) demand shorter consultations or they tend to match with practitioners who devote little time to their patients. METHODS: Of 600 general practitioners (GPs), 144 agreed to participate. During the study period (2005), 713 patients consulted with mental health problems of whom 405 (56.8%) completed questionnaires. Of these, 144 (34.8%) were defined as suffering from Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Multilevel modelling was used to explore the relationship between patient and GP characteristics, and duration of the consultation. RESULTS: A multivariate model found two significant patient variables for the consultation duration: severity of MDD symptoms (P = 0.01) and SES (proxied by education level, P = 0.05). The multilevel model including GPs' characteristics demonstrated that the apparent correlation between patients' SES and consultation length was due to a confounding factor: low SES patients were visiting GPs who are, generally, providing shorter consultations (P < 0.001). With the SES variable no longer significant: P = 0.2, although severity of symptoms remained in the model (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The shortness of the consultation length is due to a supply-side effect, implicating dissatisfaction for patients with mental health problems. This may not be generalizable to other patients. Findings are in favour of a specific intervention aimed at giving poor people equal access to GPs' time.

'Time is costly': modelling the macroeconomic impact of scaling-up antiretroviral treatment in sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND: Macroeconomic policy requirements may limit the capacity of national and international policy-makers to allocate sufficient resources for scaling-up access to HIV care and treatment in developing countries. METHOD: An endogenous growth model, which takes into account the evolution of society's human capital, was used to assess the macroeconomic impact of policies aimed at scaling-up access to HIV/AIDS treatment in six African countries (Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe). RESULTS: The model results showed that scaling-up access to treatment in the affected population would limit gross domestic product losses due to AIDS although differently from country to country. In our simulated scenarios of access to antiretroviral therapy, only 10.3% of the AIDS shock is counterbalanced in Zimbabwe, against 85.2% in Angola and even 100.0% in Benin (a total recovery). For four out of the six countries (Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast), the macro-economic gains of scaling-up would become potentially superior to its associated costs in 2010. CONCLUSION: Despite the variability of HIV prevalence rates between countries, macro-economic estimates strongly suggest that a massive investment in scaling-up access to HIV treatment may efficiently counteract the detrimental long-term impact of the HIV pandemic on economic growth, to the extent that the AIDS shock has not already driven the economy beyond an irreversible 'no-development epidemiological trap'.

[The general practitioners in front of reforms: the reactions of the sample group of liberal physicians of the region PACA]. / Les médecins généralistes face aux réformes: les réactions du panel de médecins libéraux de la région PACA.

The general practitioners in front of reforms: the reactions of the sample group of liberal physicians of the region PACA This article intends to analyse the opinion of general practioners (GPs) about the two laws of July 2004, relating to the health insurance reform and to public health planning. We used a panel data sample of 528 GPs practising in Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur in order to analyse the determinants of physicians' adherence to the reform, using multinomial logistic regression models. The results show that GPs do not seem to be fully convinced by this reform (45% agree with it, whereas 48% don't): this mistrustful opinion is more marked for young physicians and appears little correlated with their practices. 75% of the GPs are favourable to the Personal Medical File (Dossier Médical Personnel in french) and 76% estimate that they should draw a better attention to the public health dimension of their practice. Two barriers concerning GPs' adherence to the << preferred doctor >> reform (réforme du << médecin traitant >>) seem relevant: the burden of administrative tasks and the disadvantage of young physicians who have not already fixed their own clientele.