[Inequity of compensation trajectories for victims of medical injuries. A survey in the French out-of-court settlement mechanism]. / Inégalités dans les parcours d'indemnisation des victimes d'accidents médicaux. Une enquête au sein du dispositif français de règlement amiable.

BACKGROUND: In France little is known about either the characteristics of people who take legal action because they believe themselves to be victims of harm caused by medical activity, or about their complaint trajectory. The law of 4th March 2002 created an out-of-court settlement mechanism which aims to reduce inequitable access to compensation experienced by victims faced with legal procedures that are both lengthy and costly. This mechanism now occupies a central position among the avenues of recourse available to patients and their families. METHODS: The study relates to the exhaustive database of 18,258 requests for compensation filed with the out-of-court settlement mechanism between 2003 and 2009. It takes 4 series of variables into account: (1) the characteristics of the people concerned by the request, (2) the recourse practices, (3) the result of the requests, (4) the characteristics of the commissions with whom they dealt. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed, in particular to find factors relating to the different responses given to the requests. RESULTS: Of the requests filed with the out-of-court settlement mechanism, 34.5% led to compensation being awarded, 30.7% were deemed inadmissible and 34.8% were rejected on the basis of expert opinions. The risk of inadmissibility was greater when the victim was a woman, undeceased, or a minor aged between 1 and 17; it bore no relation to standard of living. Recourse to a lawyer (24%) depended on various characteristics, in particular the age and vital status of the victim. It is associated to the decrease of the risk of inadmissibility and to the increase of the chances of receiving compensation. There were significant differences in the ways requests were processed (depending on where they were filed), in the time it took to examine the case, and in the tendency to reject requests before or after expert medical opinion. CONCLUSION: This study offers the first ever description of the population of patients and families who accessed the out-of-court settlement mechanism for medical claims in France. It looks at how, within the mechanism, the diversity of practices impacts inequity and experiences during the compensation process.

Educational trajectories after childhood cancer: When illness experience matters.

With the increase in survival from childhood cancer, research has increasingly focused on the educational and professional achievements of childhood cancer survivors. Yet, if large-scale studies provide an acute description of the current situation of childhood cancer survivors, little is known about their trajectories and the social processes shaping these trajectories. Using a qualitative methodology, drawing from a life course perspective, this study sought to describe the role of childhood cancer and its side effects in educational trajectories, as perceived by the participants. We investigated related processes of social adjustment to cancer, that is to say, choices or decisions that survivors related to the illness in the making of their career plans. Eighty long-term French childhood cancer survivors participating in the Euro2K longitudinal study were interviewed through in-depth, face-to-face interviews undertaken in 2011-2012. There were various types of impact described by respondents of the diagnosis of cancer on their trajectories. These varied according to gender. In women, childhood cancer tended to result in poor educational achievement, or in steering the individual towards a health care or child care occupation. This was justified by a desire to return the support that had been offered to them as patients. In men, however, childhood cancer led to a shift in career plans, because of physical sequelae, or because of concerns about their future health. Paradoxically, this limitation had a positive impact in their occupational achievement, as most of these men disregarded blue-collar jobs and chose more qualified white-collar occupations. Overall, findings suggest that childhood cancer influenced educational trajectories and, thus, socioeconomic status in adulthood, through mechanisms embedded in gender norms. These mechanisms could explain gender inequalities in educational achievement after childhood cancer reported in large-scale cohort studies.