Appropriateness of Hospital care in France: An Analysis of Variations in Prostatectomy Rates

Résumé 0

This study measures geographical variations in radical prostatectomy (rp) in France within and across regions in 2009. It further explores the determinants of observed variations using a multilevel model allowing to distinguish the variation bound to two geographical levels : department and region. We find that there are large variations in the rates of rp between French “departments.” Moreover, the rates of rp are significantly linked to the number of urologists in each department and the volume of hospital supply (number of surgery beds and number of medical staff in public hospitals) at the regional level. Income level and epidemiological situation (cancer mortality) of the “department” do not appear to be significantly related to the rates of rp.Classification JEL : I10, I12, I19