Videotext Application For Large Scale Epidemiological Studies

Since the early 1980s, the French government has placed at the disposition of telephone owners free programmed informational miniterminals (MINITEL) of easy use, offering the user a large number of data services through a national teledata network (TRANSPAC). These services are extremely variable (from an automated phone-number search to an ordering of goods ...), numbering more than 9,000 , more than 1,000 of which are exclusively for professional use.
More than 50% of the French medical population is equipped with this service (corresponding to 4% of aIl terminaIs).
Among the available applications, 3.70% of the services concern health in general ; most of them are deitined for the general public (vaccination calendar, dietary information, health tips...)
The following study concerns the use of this means in carrying out an epidemiological study on a large scale : more than 60,000 questionnaires completed by more than 5,000 doctors (20,000 on paper, 40,000 by minitel).