BackgroundThere is little information regarding lay-people's representations of influenza and influenza-like illness in their day-to-day lives. An insight into these views may aid our understanding of community attitudes regarding official recommendations for its prevention.MethodsThis was a qualitative research. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 40 French participants from the community, and from five different locations. Questions elicited the participants' representations of onset of flu and influenza-like illness, as well as their views on what can/should be done to deal with symptoms and their personal experience with flu and flu-like symptoms.ResultsThematic content analyses allowed us to identify five main themes: the presence of a clear continuum between influenza-like illness and flu; a description of flu as a very contagious disease; flu as being benign, except in "frail people", which the respondents never considered themselves to be; interruption of daily activities, which could be considered pathognomonic for influenza for most subjects; self-medication as the main current practice, and requests for healthcare mainly to confirm an auto-diagnosis.ConclusionsThere was a large homogeneity in the representation of flu. There was also a gap between people's representations (i.e., a continuum from having a "cold" to having "influenza") and scientific knowledge (i.e., a distinction between "true" influenza and influenza-like illnesses based on the existence of a confirmatory virological diagnosis). This gap raises issues for current campaigns for flu prevention, as these may not be congruent with the representation of flu being responsible for interrupting daily activities while also being seen as a non-severe disease, as well as the perception that flu is only a risk to "frail people" though no participants considered themselves to be "frail".

Objective: Medical termination of pregnancy (MToP, or medical abortion) is a highly effective method with a reported efficacy of 95-98%. However, different criteria are currently used to define success, and there are different recommendations for the treatment of what is considered a failure of MToP. This work was undertaken to develop a consensus around a set of well-defined MToP outcomes, as recommended by the Core Outcomes in Women's and Newborn Health initiative. Methods: A literature search was made of national and international guidelines and of recommendations of expert groups for various outcomes of MToP and subsequent management. Based on a review of the findings, a group of European experts in MToP undertook a consensus process to agree on a set of core MToP outcomes. Results: The following core MToP outcomes were defined: success, failure (ongoing pregnancy), need for additional treatment (medical or surgical) to complete MToP (missed abortion, incomplete abortion), complications and the woman's request for additional treatment (medical or surgical). Recommendations for the management of unsuccessful outcomes were also formulated. Conclusion: New definitions of MToP outcomes that are more focused on objective criteria and consequently less dependent on provider interpretation are proposed. This should allow better comparison of the efficacy of different regimens and improve the management of failed or incomplete abortion. ARTICLE HISTORY

Neither pain nor its treatment are systematically reported in clinical trials of medical abortion; this shortcoming reflects a neglect of the individual pain perception. When data are mentioned, they are too inconsistent to allow for any comparison between different treatment protocols. Standardised evaluation of pain is needed and the correlation between the dosage of misoprostol and the intensity of pain must be assessed in future studies.

No abstract

No abstract