[Factors related to screening of hepatitis C virus in general medicine].
Despite the high prevalence of hepatitis C in France ( approximately 1.2%), a large proportion of people infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) are not known aware of their status. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors related to screening in general medicine.


METHODS
Three hundred and one general practitioners were interviewed by phone in South-Eastern France about their HCV screening practices, knowledge of the epidemic, of the natural course of the disease, and opinions about health care for people infected with HCV.


RESULTS
While general practitioners often offered HCV screening to intravenous drug users, screening for people who had received blood transfusion, and identification of risk factors among patients were not satisfactory. Multivariate analysis showed that certain characteristics in general practitioners were negatively and independently related to the frequency of HCV screening, especially: general practitioners older than 40 (odds-ratio: 3.12), general practitioners who did not care for intravenous drug users (odds-ratio: 2.24) and did not prescribe human immunodeficiency virus tests (odds-ratio: 5.55). Other characteristics such as awareness of the course of hepatitis C and health care were also associated with HCV screening. Conversely knowledge of the size of the epidemic was not related to better HCV screening practices.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study shows that knowledge about the size of the epidemic and the natural history of hepatitis C, HCV screening practices and investigation of risk factors among patients are not satisfactory among South-eastern French general practitioners. Although HCV screening and health care must be improved among intravenous drug users, hepatitis C should not be considered as a disease of injecting drug users only by general practitioners and the population. Efforts should be made so that hepatitis C is recognized as a global public health issue, and training of general practitioners should be improved to investigate risk factors and offer HCV screening instead of merely dramatizing the situation.
Rotily
Michel
M
INSERM U 379, Marseille, France. rotily@marseille.inserm.fr
Loubière
Sandrine
S
Prudhomme
Johanne
J
Portal
Isabelle
I
Tran
Albert
A
Hofliger
Philippe
P
Valla
Dominique
D
Moatti
Jean-Paul
JP
D000328:Adult; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010821:Physicians, Family; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012307:Risk Factors; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous