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. 2023 Dec;29(2):2139825.
doi: 10.1080/13814788.2022.2139825. Epub 2022 Nov 9.

A face-to-face national congress experience during the COVID-19 pandemic: A report focussing on the risk of COVID-19 contamination

Julie Dupouy  1 , Marc Chaneliere  1 , Matthieu Schuers  1 , Catherine Laporte  1 , Marc Bayen  1 , Aurélie Gaultier  2 , Cédric Rat  1
Affiliations

A face-to-face national congress experience during the COVID-19 pandemic: A report focussing on the risk of COVID-19 contamination

Julie Dupouy et al. Eur J Gen Pract. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Background: The Congress of the National College of Academic General Practitioners took place in France in June 2021. In total, 1300 participants were registered, provoking concerns about the risk of COVID-19 contamination.

Objectives: The study objective was to report participation in the first French face-to-face medical congress after restrictions due to COVID-19 and whether it resulted in COVID-19 contamination.

Methods: We performed two web-based surveys of respectively 46 and 33 questions. The first questionnaire was sent to all congress participants during the congress (and to a panel of non-participants) and investigated demographic characteristics, medical conditions, behaviours related to COVID-19 contamination risk, and the interest of face-to-face congress as compared to virtual congress. Two weeks after the congress, a questionnaire was addressed to the same population and to university General Practice departments to identify incident COVID-19 cases among participants.

Results: A total of 1001 general practitioners and residents completed the first questionnaire; 752 participated in the congress. The respondents were mainly women (61.3%), with a mean age of 35 (SD 10) years, 96.2% had been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and 11.4% considered themselves at risk for a severe form of COVID-19 for medical reasons. Concerning the interest in attending the congress face-to-face, mean score was 9 over 10 (SD 1.5). No case of COVID-19 was reported among participants according to the second questionnaire (449 respondents).

Conclusion: During a world pandemic, even participants considering themselves at risk came to a medical congress, highlighting the networking and social aspects of a face-to-face congress.

Keywords: COVID-19; Continuing medical education; health behaviour; medical congress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

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