What use general practitioners do they tests and scales referred to geriatric?

JUSTIFICATION: the complexity of the elderly's cares justifies to set up tools of screening, diagnosis and follow-up of multiple pathologies. Numerous tests and scales were elaborated and validated, and are recommended by the Haute autorité de santé (HAS). Are these tools useful and are they adapted to the consultation of general medicine? What are the obstacles to their appropriation by the general practitioners? OBJECTIVE: to determine the frequency of use of a series of twelve tests and scales to geriatric aim by the general practitioners. SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: interests of these tests and obstacles to their use in practice. METHOD: transverse survey by mail way, with a representative sampling of general practitioners of Meurthe-et-Moselle concerning the use of 12 tests or scales validated. RESULTS: 84 general practitioners on 145 requested participated in the survey (rate of answers 58%). The most used tests are the MMSE, the AGGIR, the test of the clock and the test of five words of Dubois (respectively 48, 43, 38 and 36% of regular users). Thirty five percent of the general practitioners never use tests or scales, while 37% use them at least once a month. 85.5% of the trained practitioners use it more frequently. A practitioner on two (51%) considers that these tools are unsuitable for his practice while almost totality of the general practitioners (90%) admits an interest about these tools in the screening, the diagnosis and the follow-up of the geriatric pathologies. The obstacles are essentially connected to the very time-consuming character, to the absence of specific quotation and to the lack of training. CONCLUSION: in the absence of tests and scales conceived by geriatricians and general practitioners, the existing tests although recognized useful are underused by the general practitioners of Meurthe-et-Moselle.