Objective: In order to develop primary care research by general practice university lecturers, it was necessary to evaluate the representativeness of this group of lecturers at the Angers Faculty of Medicine.
Methods: Declarative study based on self-administered questionnaires filled in by 216 university lecturers. The questionnaire was derived from that of the regional panel of the Research, studies, evaluation and statistics directorate of 2007, investigating the sociodemographic characteristics, professional organization, activities and certain professional practices of general practitioners. University lecturers were compared to the population of the panel by means of a Chi-square test of conformity.
Results: A total of 181 university lecturers participated in the survey, comprising 65% of men. The proportion of women was higher among university lecturers and the 45-54years age-group was underrepresented. The university lecturers group was significantly different from the panel in terms of predominantly group practice and shorter weekly working hours. No significant difference was observed for the type of town of practice ahd the continuing medical education participation rate.
Conclusion: University lecturers present certain specificities, partly related to the reference population used. The development of research based on such a network appears to be feasible in terms ofrepresentativeness, provided these specificities are clearly described.