Sociodemographic profile and motivations of patients attending nonscheduled consultations or appointments in general practice

Background. In France, healthcare disparities as a burden are taken into account as a priority goal in the global health national strategy. Non scheduled consultations could be a way to improve accessibility of stakeholders for the socially most disadvantaged part of the general population. Objectives. To compare sociodemographic profiles of patients attending non-scheduled consultations to patients attending appointments, and assess the underlying reasons for choosing between both possibilities. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 155 patients attending practices with appointments and 159 attending non-scheduled consultations. The recruitment was conducted in the waiting rooms of 12 General Practitioners having a regular convention with the French Health insurance, working in the Eastside of Paris. A questionnaire was distributed to patients in order to collect information about their socio-demographic characteristics and the reasons for attending one type of consultation. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out for comparison of these characteristics. Results. Patients attending nonscheduled consultations were younger, more often with foreign nationalities, with more disadvantaged socio-demographic characteristics (lower study level, living more often alone, without their own accommodation, more often benefiting from social subsidies). Among those patients, 20 % of them justified their choices of non-scheduled consultations with troubles with the French language, having a phone or organizing their everyday life. Conclusion. These results provide approaches to improve accessibility to care and take into account healthcare disparities in general practice.