[The impact of a general practitioner training program on the colorectal cancer screening participation rate]

Colorectal cancer mortality in France in 2011 was 13.8/100,000 men and 8.2/100,000 women. As participation in mass screening remains insufficient, training was proposed to general practitioners in the Drôme-Ardèche departments. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of this training after one year.

This study compared a group of trained volunteers with the other general practitioners in the two departments. The participation rate was measured in patients aged 50 to 74 years examined during the year following the training programme. The participation rate was then assessed on the total population of patients aged 50 to 74 seen by each practitioner, and the practitioner's degree of conviction (tests performed / test kits delivered) and the clarity of instructions (interpretable tests / tests performed) were assessed.

Thirty-five general practitioners attended the training programme in Spring 2011. The number of tests performed in this group of trained GPs was 0.29 per target patient examined (vs 0.17 among the 604 practitioners who did not attend the training programme) with a significant difference (p < 0.0001). The number of tests performed on the total patient population aged 50 to 74 was 0.24 per patient (vs 0.14) with p < 0.001. The conviction index was 0.85 (vs 0.90) with p < 0.0008 and the clarity of instructions index was 0.94 (vs 0.93) (p not significant).

The training programme had a limited impact on participation in colorectal cancer screening, but trained practitioners nevertheless distributed more test kits and more tests were performed.