Does a prenatal consultation dedicated to fathers’ health widen men’s access to prevention and care?

Prenatal care provides expectant mothers with regular healthcare access, yet no equivalent preventative framework exists for expectant fathers. The PARTAGE project evaluated a dedicated prenatal consultation for future fathers aimed at health preservation and improvement. We describe the clinical outcomes of this consultation and identify factors associated with these outcomes. PARTAGE was a monocentric interventional study without control arm launched in a large public maternity ward in a northeastern suburb of Paris, an area where immigration prevails. Eligible pregnant women were offered to give their partner contact details. Among 2516 eligible future fathers who were successfully contacted, 1333 were included; fourteen others sought the consultation directly. A physician or a midwife held a medical interview, prescribed immediate biological tests, administered vaccination catch-up, and offered healthcare and social referral depending on participants' needs. Paternal prenatal consultations resulted in prevention, diagnosis and linkage into care: 37% of participants had never been tested for HIV; 96% had not been tested during or immediately prior to the current pregnancy, of whom only 1% refused HIV screening; 72% were out-of-date for pertussis or measles vaccinations, of whom 60% received an on-site catch-up. In addition, 18% had at least one pathology diagnosed or brought back into care; 17% were referred to healthcare professionals and 11% to social workers. In multivariate analysis, being born in Sub Saharan Africa rather than in France and having no health insurance coverage rather than a complete one were associated with a medical diagnosis (OR 2.67 [1.80-3.98] and OR 2.58 [1.63-4.09], respectively) and with a referral to a healthcare professional (OR 2.67 [1.80-3.98] and OR 3.63 [2.27-5.80], respectively). PARTAGE led to HIV screening and vaccinations catch-up across the whole study population. It also enabled the diagnosis of undetected illnesses and to the resumption of care for pathologies that had already been diagnosed but were previously lost to follow-up, especially in the most socially disadvantaged future fathers. Addressing men’s health during their partner’s pregnancy may help reduce gender and social inequalities in health. NCT05085717; Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov, US National Library of Medicine https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05085717 (retrospectively registered). Registration date: 20 October 2021. Protocol is available as additional file 1.