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Practices and opinions regarding HPV vaccination among French general practitioners: evaluation through two cross-sectional studies in 2007 and 2010

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To use both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the evolution of practices and opinions regarding human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among French general practitioners.

Methods

A cross-sectional study (self-questionnaires) was performed in 2007 and repeated in 2010 among 271 general practitioners. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on 27 voluntary participants by a sociologist and analyzed according to content analysis.

Results

Acceptability of HPV vaccination had increased from 2007 to 2010 (79.9 vs. 87.1 %, respectively), just as the practice of HPV vaccination among 14-year-old girls (19.0 vs. 49.1 %, respectively). Though about 60 % reported complications associated with HPV vaccination, irrespective of year, the types of difficulties have varied: difficulties related to “questions asked by patients” had decreased, though concerns about side effects had remained stable. During interviews, difficulties related to “the reason for medical consultation” and “the target age” were often associated with addressing the issue of sexuality, especially when the parents were present.

Conclusions

Although the high level of acceptability of HPV vaccination among general practitioners, which increased from 2007 to 2010, there remain difficulties in addressing this practice.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Domingues-Montanari (Barcelona, Spain) contributed to the editing of this paper. L’Union Régionale des Médecins Libéraux Rhône-Alpes provided us access to the general practitioners registered in the Rhône-Alpes region in September 2007 and in January 2010. This study was supported by “La Ligue Contre le Cancer” and Sanofi Pasteur MSD.

Conflict of interest

Authors declared no competing interests expect Yann Leocmach who are an employee of Sanofi Pasteur MSD, Lyon, France.

Ethics

All GPs provided written informed consent, and all data were registered in an anonymous way. This study complies with the current French laws and was approved by the French National Committee for personal data protection in medical research (CNIL) and by the local institutional review boards (CPP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de santé publique, Centre Léon Bérard, Université Lyon 1, CNRS UMR 5558, 28 rue Laennec, 69373, Lyon cedex 08, France

    Christine Lasset, Giovanna Barone & Delphine Lutringer-Magnin

  2. Laboratoire de biométrie et biologie évolutive, Université Lyon 1, CNRS UMR 5558, Villeurbanne, France

    Christine Lasset, Philippe Vanhems & Delphine Lutringer-Magnin

  3. Institut de Cancérologie Lucien Neuwirth, CIC-EC 3 Inserm, IFR 143, Saint-Etienne, France

    Julie Kalecinski, Véronique Régnier & Franck Chauvin

  4. Sanofi Pasteur MSD, Lyon, France

    Yann Leocmach

  5. Département d’hygiène, épidémiologie et prévention, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France

    Philippe Vanhems

Authors
  1. Christine Lasset
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  2. Julie Kalecinski
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  3. Véronique Régnier
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  8. Delphine Lutringer-Magnin
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Correspondence to Christine Lasset.

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Lasset, C., Kalecinski, J., Régnier, V. et al. Practices and opinions regarding HPV vaccination among French general practitioners: evaluation through two cross-sectional studies in 2007 and 2010. Int J Public Health 59, 519–528 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0555-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0555-9

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