A BVA survey reveals that 93% of French people have trusted their GP to monitor their state of health during confinement and that 74% of them will continue to turn to them in the first place.
- French people’s confidence in general practitioners and pharmacists increased during confinement
- More than half of French people convinced by teleconsultation and ready to use it in the future
- 61% of French people felt weakened during this period of confinement
Many French people refused to consult a specialist or a city doctor during confinement, mainly for fear of catching Covid-19. However, according to a recent BVA* survey carried out for the APRIL Foundation93% of them say they trusted their doctor to monitor their state of health.
Thus, 74% even plan to continue to turn first to their general practitioner in the event of a problem. This confidence rating has also increased with regard to pharmacists (83%), thus gaining 5 points compared to last year.
Teleconsultation, very popular with the French
Containment has highlighted one of the innovations in health: teleconsultation. If the elderly are not very fond of it, 56% of French people say they are ready to use this service if it allows for a faster diagnosis (+12 pts compared to 2019).
“We are witnessing a revolution in teleconsultation, partly triggered by the coronavirus crisisanalyzes Pierre Wolff, general practitioner and administrator on the board of directors of the APRIL Foundation. For example, there were barely a thousand doctors practicing it in September 2019 compared to more than thirty thousand today. Three-quarters of doctors even consider that teleconsultation will be part of their daily life by 2030.”
Teleconsultation reassures patients and doctors, who can talk while maintaining social distancing, prevents patients from moving around and rubbing shoulders with other patients in the waiting room and finally, allows people living in medical deserts to have access to a doctor. Of course, the limits of teleconsultation come into play when the general practitioner needs to carry out an examination on the patient.
The consequences of confinement on the health of the French
Lockdown has had very different effects on each household: 61% of French people say they felt weakened, particularly psychologically, in terms of stress, nervousness (49%) but also emotionally (40%) and physically (32%). However, 95% will continue to eat better when 91% will maintain the efforts made in terms of physical activity, which is good news.
“This study shows how much the behavior of the French has evolved with this unique health crisiscomments the APRIL Foundation. They have thus taken their health in hand, by referring to people they trust such as their doctor or pharmacist, while being open to new ways of consulting, in particular via telemedicine..”
* Study carried out from May 5 to 7, 2020 with 1007 people.
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