Ventelou

Publications

Factors associated with the use of rapid antigen diagnostic tests in children presenting with acute pharyngitis among French general practitionersJournal articleAudrey Michel-Lepage, Bruno Ventelou, Pierre Verger and Céline Pulcini, European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Volume 33, Issue 5, pp. 723-728, 2014

In this investigation, we wanted: (i) to describe the attitudes and declared practices of a representative sample of French general practitioners (GPs) regarding rapid antigen diagnostic tests (RADTs) for acute pharyngitis and (ii) to identify the GPs’ characteristics associated with the use of an RADT in the last paediatric patient with pharyngitis. We performed a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2012 among a representative sample of 1,126 self-employed GPs in France. 60.1 % of GPs declared that they used an RADT in their last patient aged between 3 and 16 years presenting with acute pharyngitis; 29.6 % of these tests were positive. Among the GPs who did not use an RADT, 50.2 % prescribed an antibiotic, compared to 30.5 % of prescriptions among GPs who performed an RADT, whatever its result. In a multivariate analysis, GPs’ age between 45 and 54 years and having attended Continuing Medical Education (CME) sessions on infectious diseases in the past year were significantly associated with an increased use of an RADT in the last patient with pharyngitis, whereas a low volume of activity, occasionally practising alternative medicine, receiving pharmaceutical representatives at the practice and declaring a consultation duration <15 min were factors associated with a decreased use of RADTs. The use of RADTs by GPs must be promoted; our findings could help define interventions to improve practice.

Childhood preventive care, adult healthcare and economic growth: The role of healthcare financingJournal articleMaame Esi Woode, Carine Nourry and Bruno Ventelou, Economics Letters, Volume 124, Issue 1, pp. 41-47, 2014

We analyze the impact of healthcare financing on economic growth, focusing on the issue of the joint public-private financing of healthcare (co-payment). We use an overlapping-generations model with endogenous growth based on health human capital accumulation, where families pay for childhood preventive care and the government can either fully finance or co-finance adulthood curative care. From a growth maximizing perspective, distortionary taxes give an advantage to co-financing. Nevertheless, we prove that, if agents are assumed to be heterogeneous in preferences, full financing can become the best option.

Opinions et pratiques d’un panel de médecins généralistes français vis-à-vis de la vaccinationJournal articleSophie Massin, Céline Pulcini, Odile Launay, Rémi Flicoteaux, Rémy Sebbah, Alain Paraponaris, Pierre Verger and Bruno Ventelou, Global Health Promotion, Volume 20, Issue 2 suppl, pp. 28-32, 2013

En France, la couverture vaccinale est insuffisante. Les médecins généralistes étant des acteurs essentiels de la politique vaccinale, il est utile de connaître leurs opinions et pratiques à ce sujet. Nous avons interrogé 1431 médecins généralistes français et 98% se déclaraient favorables à la vaccination dans leur pratique quotidienne. Leurs couvertures vaccinales étaient de 73% pour l’hépatite B, 64% pour la coqueluche et 77% pour la grippe saisonnière. Les médecins se trouvaient très efficaces pour obtenir l’adhésion pour le vaccin ROR (Rougeole-Oreillons-Rubéole) chez les enfants de moins de deux ans et la grippe saisonnière chez les adultes de moins de 65 ans à risque, mais beaucoup moins pour l’hépatite B chez les adolescents. La mise en place d’un registre national informatisé des vaccinations et de messages de promotion vaccinale différenciés par vaccin semblent les deux voies prioritaires pour améliorer la couverture vaccinale.

Le point de vue de l’économiste : les dépenses de santé aujourd’hui, toujours la maladie d’amour ?Book chapterBruno Ventelou, In: La santé publique à l'épreuve de la rareté, J.-F. Calmette (Eds.), 2013, Presses universitaires de l’université d’Aix-Marseille, 2013
Comparaison du recours à un chirurgien-dentiste entre les personnes âgées institutionnalisées et celles vivant à domicile, France, 2008-2009Journal articleSophie Thiébaut, Laurence Lupi-Pégurier, Alain Paraponaris and Bruno Ventelou, Bulletin Epidémiologique Hebdomadaire, Issue 7, pp. 4-7, 2013

Objectif – Garantir un accès aux soins bucco-dentaires équitable et de qualité aux personnes âgées reste un défi. Ce travail a pour objectif de comparer le recours au chirurgien-dentiste des personnes âgées institutionnalisées à celui des personnes âgées vivant à domicile.
Méthode – Les données analysées, restreintes aux sujets de plus de 60 ans, sont issues de l’enquête Handicap-Santé menée en France en ménages ordinaires (HSM) et en institutions (HSI). La technique d’appariement par score de propension a été utilisée afin de permettre la comparaison des deux populations en minimisant les biais. Les variables d’appariement étaient l’âge, le sexe, le degré de dépendance, la catégorie socioprofessionnelle et la fréquence des contacts avec la famille.
Résultats – Un sous-échantillon de 3 358 sujets âgés (1 679 paires) a été constitué. La probabilité de recours au chirurgien-dentiste est diminuée d’un quart lorsque les personnes sont institutionnalisées (OR=0,7 ;p <0,001) par rapport aux personnes vivant à domicile. Pour les personnes institutionnalisées, le recours au chirurgien-dentiste apparaît cependant plus fréquent dans les établissements privés à but non lucratif que dans les structures publiques ou privées à but lucratif.
Conclusion – Toutes choses égales par ailleurs, la vie en institution peut être considérée comme une barrière pour le recours au chirurgien-dentiste.

Ageing, chronic conditions and the evolution of future drugs expenditure: a five-year micro-simulation from 2004 to 2029Journal articleSophie P. Thiébaut, Thomas Barnay and Bruno Ventelou, Applied Economics, Volume 45, Issue 13, pp. 1663-1672, 2013

The healthy ageing assumptions may lead to substantial changes in paths of aggregate health care expenditure, notably catastrophic expenditure of people at the end of the life. But clear assessments of involved amounts are not available when we specifically consider ambulatory care (as drug expenditure) generally offered to chronically-ill people. We estimate the effects of epidemiological and life expectancy changes on French health expenditure until 2029 by applying a Markovian micro-simulation model from a nationally representative database. The originality of these simulations holds in using an aggregate indicator of morbidity–mortality, capturing vital risk and making it possible to adapt the quantification of life expectancies by taking into account the presence of severe chronic pathologies. We forecast future national drugs expenditure, under different epidemiological scenarios of chronic morbidity: trend scenario, healthy ageing scenario and medical progress scenario . For the population aged 25+, results predict an increase in reimbursable drug expenditure of between 1.1% and 1.8% (annual growth rate), attributable solely to the ageing population and changes in health status.

Impact of health aid in developing countries: The public vs. the private channelsJournal articleMuhammad Asim Afridi and Bruno Ventelou, Economic Modelling, Volume 31, Issue C, pp. 759-765, 2013

This paper examines the efficient allocation of international health aid. We built a simple macroeconomic model which considers an endogenous allocation of aid mixed between the public and the private channels. We derive a non-cooperative interaction-game involving the private sector, the donor and the recipient government. We compare the equilibrium of the game to the optimal level of health aid allocation, showing a gap between both. The empirical analysis is based on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and World Health Organization (WHO) data sets using dynamic panel data model with fixed effects (system-GMM). Our results show that health aid actually reduces adult mortality in developing countries. Furthermore, we show that the actual allocation of aid-mix between government and private channels is not health efficient and there is room for reallocation.

Flux internationaux d'aide à la santé, taux de mortalité adulte et PIB. Le "triangle d'or" du développement ?Journal articleBruno Ventelou, Muhammad Asim Afridi and Jean-Paul Moatti, Revue Tiers-Monde, Volume 215, Issue 3, pp. 93-110, 2013

The study examines the triangular relationship between adult mortality, per capita income and foreign aid. Data are taken from the 'Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation'. We have included 37 low-income (LIC), 39 lower middle-income (LMIC), and 20 upper middle income (UMIC) for the period 1990-2008. The study starts from the idea that the statistical relationship between series of foreign aid and population health may be bidirectional, adding a new stage of complexity for testing the impact of a third variable : GDP, which could also predetermine the levels of aid granted. The Granger causality test is the most effective and practical way to determine the direction of the causalities. Although less effective for particular groups of countries (UMIC), foreign aid generally has a negative impact on mortality, as reported by tests taking into account directional causalities (70 % of valid coefficients are negative). This result moderates the pessimistic view of international development aid, at least in the domain of assistance for health.

Drug-specific quality indicators assessing outpatient antibiotic use among French general practitioners.Journal articleCéline Pulcini, Caroline Lions, Bruno Ventelou and Pierre Verger, European Journal of Public Health, Volume 23, Issue 2, pp. 262-264, 2013

Quality indicators assessing the use of antibiotics among general practitioners (GPs) would be useful to target antibiotic stewardship interventions. We adapted to an individual GP level a set of 12 drug-specific quality indicators of outpatient antibiotic use in Europe developed by the European surveillance of antimicrobial consumption project. We performed a cross-sectional study analysing reimbursement data on outpatient antibiotic prescriptions in adults in south-eastern France in 2009. Substantial heterogeneity in antibiotic prescribing among French GPs was observed, and opportunity to improve antibiotic prescribing can be identified.

Approaching the quality of antibiotic prescriptions in primary care using reimbursement data.Journal articleCéline Pulcini, Caroline Lions, Bruno Ventelou and Pierre Verger, European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Volume 32, Issue 3, pp. 325-332, 2013

Our objectives for this investigation were: (i) to design quality measures of outpatient antibiotic use that could be calculated at the individual general practitioner (GP) level using reimbursement data only; and (ii) to analyse the variability in antibiotic prescriptions between GPs regarding these measures in south-eastern France. Based on the literature and international therapeutic guidelines, we designed a set of quality measures in an exploratory attempt to assess the quality of antibiotic prescriptions. We performed a cross-sectional study of antibiotic prescriptions in adults in south-eastern France in 2009, using data from the outpatient reimbursement database of the French National Health Insurance (NHI). We carried out a cluster analysis to group GPs according to their antibiotic prescribing behaviour. Six quality measures were calculated at the GP level, with wide variations in practice regarding all these measures. A six-cluster solution was identified, with one cluster grouping 56 % of the sample and made up of GPs having the most homogeneous pattern of prescription for all six quality measures, probably reflecting better antibiotic prescribing. Total pharmaceutical expenses (per patient), penicillin combinations use, quinolone use and seasonal variation of quinolone use were all positively associated with a more heterogeneous and possibly less appropriate use of antibiotics in a multivariate analysis. These quality measures could be useful to assess GPs' antibiotic prescribing behaviour in countries where no information system provides easy access to data linking drug use to a clinical condition.