[General practitioners’ preferences towards incentive measures linked with cancer screening]

General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in the delivery of preventive and screening services for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers. Yet, their current provision of screening services remains low and varies considerably across screening contexts and GPs. This study investigates the determinants of GPs' involvement in cancer screening activities using discrete choice experiment (DCE) methodology.

A representative sample of 402 GPs was recruited in France between March and April 2014. The participants completed 12 choice tasks designed to elicit their preferences for 5 cancer screening attributes aimed at increasing their supply of cancer screening services.

GPs are sensitive to both financial and non-financial incentives, such as a compensated training and systematic transmission of information about screened patients, aimed to facilitate communication between doctors and patients. There is also evidence that the preferences differ across screening contexts: GPs appear to be relatively more sensitive to financial incentives for being involved in colorectal cancer screening, whereas they have higher preference for non-financial incentives in breast and cervical cancers.

Our study provides new findings for policymakers interested in prioritizing levers to increase the supply of cancer screening services in general practice.