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Objectives: Vaccination is an effective way to reduce morbidity and mortality related to infectious diseases. In France, primary care physicians are the main administrators of vaccines. Our objective was to conduct an exploratory qualitative study with primary care physicians to identify determinants of their commitment to vaccination., Methods: A qualitative research study was conducted with 36 primary care physicians from different geographical regions in France. Six focus group discussions, following a semi-structured interview guide, were held. Qualitative analysis based on coding of the transcribed discussions was performed to identify the factors influencing primary care physicians’ attitudes toward vaccination. These factors were then organized into themes. Saturation was also evaluated., Results: Diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, pneumococcal infections, meningococcus, human papillomavirus, rotavirus, pertussis, varicella and flu vaccinations were all discussed in each focus group. Saturation was reached from the fourth focus group. Forty identified determinants were divided into six themes: vaccine characteristics, disease characteristics, primary care physicians’ past experience, practical aspects, expected benefits and primary care physician-patient relationship., Conclusions: This study identified the behavioural and organizational determinants influencing primary care physicians’ attitudes toward vaccination. These attitudes and determinants varied according to diseases and vaccines. The identified determinants and themes were used as a basis for the development of a questionnaire evaluating the Determinant of Vaccination Intentions (DIVA) of primary care physicians.

Introduction: Ophthalmologists contend with a wide range of painful acute and chronic diseases. However, there is no tool specific to ocular pain that aids the patient in describing and quantifying pain., Purpose: Our objective was to develop a tool that would allow the ophthalmologist to identify the patient's pain quickly and precisely in order to measure its intensity and to determine possible causes., Methods: An interview guide was elaborated after a literature review. Structured interviews were conducted in hospitals by a clinical research associate with patients suffering from painful acute or chronic pathologies. Different types of quantification and description of pain were proposed to patients. A questionnaire was developed and tested. After the analysis of the tests, the ODEON pilot questionnaire (Objectif Douleur En Ophtalmologie et Neuro-ophtalmologie: target: ophthalmic and neuro-ophthalmic pain) was developed., Results: Twenty patients presenting ten different diagnoses were interviewed. Patients preferred to quantify pain with visual analogic or graduated scales. They appreciated the help of pictograms to describe their pain. Eight other patients presenting six different diagnoses tested the questionnaire. They judged the test version valid and easy to use, except for the section on emotional descriptors. An average of approximately 20 minutes was necessary to complete the questionnaire. After the tests, various questions were combined, reformulated, deleted or added. The ODEON pilot questionnaire contains five sections: 1. general health, 2. eyes and eyesight, 3. pain, 4. pain relief, 5. pictograms and sensorial descriptors. The closed- and open-ended questions included in these dimensions make it possible to measure patient pain and help the practitioner with patient management., Conclusion: The ODEON pilot questionnaire was developed under the supervision of a pilot committee involving clinicians and methodologists. Patients have indicated acceptance of this self-administered questionnaire during the cognitive debriefing and it is now being validated.

Introduction: Ocular surface diseases (OSD) affect about 15% of the population over 65 years of age. Nevertheless, OSD knowledge in the scientific community remains poor, and the healthcare system does not adequately recognize this disorder. However, many patients with OSD suffering from chronic pain experience substantial alteration in their quality of life (QoL)., Purpose: Our work aimed at developing a patient self-evaluation questionnaire specific to OSD. This questionnaire could thus become a useful diagnostic tool that ophthalmologists could employ in daily practice in order to better understand patients'complaints and thereby correctly treat their disease. It also may serve as an evaluation tool in medical research. This article describes the phases of item generation, validation by experts, and identification of dimensions in the QoL section., Methods: The questionnaire was developed in French by a group of experts including clinicians and methodologists. It comprised two parts: one on diagnostic aid, and the other on subjective perception of the disease (symptoms, perception of treatment, quality of life). The questionnaire was tested on five patients. It was then modified according to the patients' suggestions and tested again on 20 patients. After a second review by the scientific committee, a pilot questionnaire suitable for systematic use in quantitative studies was prepared. A cross-sectional observational study then identified the statistical dimensions of the QoL section, which led to a reduction in the total number of items., Results: The resulting operational version of the questionnaire included four sections, Conclusion: The next study will test the reproducibility of the operational version of the OSD questionnaire obtained after the item reduction phase.

The methods for developing Health-Related Quality-of-Life (HRQoL) measures and their application in medical research have demonstrated their utility in various chronic, progressive, or life-threatening diseases. The efforts made to allow the patient's perspective to be included in the methodological framework of evidence-based medicine have been successful. The assumption of a strong relationship between clinical status and daily life is certainly valid in ophthalmology. However, there is a lack of specific HRQoL measures dedicated to ophthalmic diseases. Our work aimed at creating the first Glaucoma-specific Quality of Life scale - the Glau-QoL questionnaire - to provide researchers and physicians with a comprehensive, practical, and validated tool. This article describes the first stage of the process, which consisted in generating items and formatting them in order to create a questionnaire that exhaustively covers the relevant concepts. The whole process was conducted by an expert committee including clinicians and methodologists. The standard recommendations in the development of a HRQoL questionnaire were followed: we first identified existing tools and performed a preliminary collection of concepts from the published literature; we then designed an interview guide with the help of clinicians; a trained psychologist interviewed 22 patients at various disease severity stages (from isolated hypertonic to severely impaired); the interviews were tape-recorded and scripted; general domains and related detailed concepts were identified from the script; they were then analyzed and organized; the format of the questionnaire was set up; and questions were derived from the patient's verbatim to capture the identified detailed concepts. The test questionnaire was applied to seven patients for cognitive debriefing. We finally amended the test questionnaire and designed the pilot questionnaire according to the patients' tests and the clinician's review. The test questionnaire was well accepted by the patients, despite a completion duration ranging from 14 to 35 minutes. The pilot questionnaire contained 151 items, grouped into 5 sections: (1) vision problems, physicians, and daily treatment (49 items); (2) activities of daily living (37 items); (3) self-expression (37 items); (4) vision problems and mood (14 items); and (5) other questions (14 items). The next step of our work will be the item reduction process and the psychometric validation of the Glau-QoL questionnaire.

Chronic glaucoma is a severe disease that can induce blindness.Early diagnosis and symptomatic treatment reduce the risk of blindness. Treatment that will be started before the onset of clinical signs and will remain lifelong thereafter is troublesome, and therapeutic compliance is usually poor. Thus, quality of life (QOL) measurement in patients with chronic glaucoma has a particular purpose: to measure patients' perception of the disease and treatment in order to maintain good treatment compliance to ensure therapeutic management efficacy and to preserve visual function. No glaucoma-specific instrument is available in the medical and QOL literature. Various generic(SF-36, SF-20 and SIP) and specific(VAQ, VF-14, NEI-VFQ) QOL questionnaires,one glaucoma-specific symptomatic scale (GSS),and one treatment preference scale (COMTol) have been used to measure QOL in glaucoma patients. These instruments do not sufficiently measure the psychosocial dimension of the disease and the QOL impact of treatment. An instrument able to measure all dimensions needs to be developed in order to help ophthalmologists in the therapeutic management of their patients and to measure QOLin patients in the successive stages of the disease.

Four hundred and thirty patients with grade 2 or 3 esophagitis were treated after 2/1 randomization for 8 weeks with omeprazole 20 mg (n = 294) or ranitidine 150 mg bid (n = 136). Apart from treatment, 8 epidemiological factors (gender, age, occupation, obesity, smoking, alcohol, NSAID, and coffee or tea consumption), 5 clinical factors (day/night pain distribution, burning score, severity of regurgitation and of dysphagia, number of painful episodes requiring prescription of an antisecretory agent during the previous year, and onset of symptoms before age 30) and 3 endoscopic factors (grade and upward extension of esophagitis, and existence of hiatal hernia > or = 5 cm) were analysed. The influence of these factors on healing at 8 weeks and on changes in symptoms was evaluated by multivariate analysis. 92.1% of patients enrolled were analyzed. In comparison with ranitidine, omeprazole increased the percentage of healed patients (93% v. 67.5%, p < 0.001) and the rapidity of disappearance of symptoms (5 days v. 7 days, p < 0.001). Independent good prognostic factors associated with healing rate were treatment with omeprazole (p < 0.001) and grade 2 esophagitis (p < 0.001) while those associated with the disappearance of symptoms were a low burning score (p = 0.001), advanced age (p = 0.004), treatment with omeprazole (p = 0.005), the absence of any occupation (p = 0.01) and male gender (p = 0.017). The results of this study show that, apart from treatment, endoscopic factors are predictive of the healing of reflux esophagitis treated by antisecretory agents while clinical factors are more important with regard to the disappearance of symptoms.