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Article History

Received: 18 March 2026

Accepted: 6 July 2026

First Online: 23 July 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted in accordance with the MR004 methodology of the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL). The protocol and the Information and Non-Opposition Form received a favorable opinion from the Committee of Expertise for Research, Studies, and Evaluations in the Health Field (CEREES), as well as authorization from the CNIL. The research protocol was also approved by the Clinical Ethics Committee of the university hospital of Besançon on June 17, 2020. This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.Under French legal framework, written consent is not required for this qualitative study. According to Article L.1122-1-1 of the French Public Health Code, research involving humans requires free, informed, and express consent, but the form of that consent (written or verbal) may vary depending on the type and risk of the study. In non-interventional qualitative studies such as WhereToCare, verbal informed consent is permissible, provided that participants are properly informed and their agreement is documented. In this study, participation was based on verbal agreement from all participants, and any refusal to participate or to use data was documented through a signed opt-out form. The study was conducted in compliance with the CNIL MR-004 reference methodology (Délibération n° 2018 − 155 of 3 May 2018, Journal Officiel, 13 July 2018), which governs the processing of personal data for research, studies, and evaluations in the health domain that do not meet the legal definition of human subject research.

Consent for publication: Not applicable.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.