Non-antibiotic Primary Prevention of Low Urinary Tract Infections: Evaluation of the Knowledge and Practices of Patients in the General Practitioner's Office, Observational and Descriptive Study in the Former Auvergne Region in France.

3436/5000 Urinary tract infections are a real public health issue. The frequency of these infections in France is estimated between 6 and 8 million in primary care (1) which represents 15% of antibiotics prescribed in primary care. Approximately 40-50% of women have had at least one UTI during their lifetime. (4) There is also an ecological issue by increasing the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. (6) (7) The goal is to assess patients' knowledge and understandings to improve primary prevention.

The secondary objective will be to identify the demographic, sociological and ethiologic factors that may influence the knowledge and behavior of patients consulting in general medicine concerning means of prevention of cystitis.

This exploratory descriptive study is carried out on the basis of an anonymous questionnaire distributed in waiting rooms of GP offices after drawing lots in the former Auvergne region with prior approval of doctors. The inclusion criterion is to be a woman aged 18 to 65, consultant in general medicine.

24 general practitioners will be drawn in proportion to the distribution by department of the former region of Auvergne.

The primary outcome measure is to assess patients' knowledge and behaviors about how to prevent cystitis from responses to questionnaire items

. The duration of the study will be 6 weeks. The questionnaire consists of a section on the characteristics of patients including age, BMI, socio-professional category, current treatments, medico-surgical antecedents of interest and the other part consisting of 16 questions. on preventative measures to avoid cystitis with simple answers divided into "did you know" and "do it yourself", two questions about ecology and two other questions about lifestyle and other preventive practices.

It will also be collected data on the selected doctors: age, location, gynecological acts associated with general medicine.

The statistical analysis will be carried out with the software Stata . All statistical tests will be carried out at the risk of error of the first kind α of 5%. Patients will be described according to the variables: compliance with eligibility criteria, epidemiological characteristics, clinical characteristics and treatments. These analyzes will be complemented by the usual statistical tests, for example Chi2 test or Fisher-exact test for the comparison of categorical and anova variables or Kruskal-Wallis test if necessary for the quantitative variables. It seems difficult to propose for this exploratory observational study an estimate of the number of necessary subjects sufficiently robust and relevant. Nevertheless, it has been agreed to include at least 800 patients to establish possible specific profiles associated with patient knowledge and behavior The protocol, the information and consent form and the questionnaire were submitted for opinion to the Protection to Persons Committee.