ArticleAnnals of family medicine
Continuity and trust in primary care: a qualitative study informed by game theory.
Article in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed.
- Qualitative study to explore which components of home-based primary care may reduce emergency department visits among older adults.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Factors influencing confidence and trust in health professionals: a cross-sectional study of English general practices.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Implications of skill-mix change in general practice: secondary analysis of data from the GP Patient Survey.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- What Teens Hear and How They React: Adolescent Perspectives on Substance Use, Sexual Risk, and Sexual Violence Prevention in Primary Care.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Perceived barriers and facilitators of accessing statutory and non-statutory services, in disadvantaged communities, in England: a co-produced qualitative review.Public health reviews · 2026Review
- The hidden impact of workforce instability on patient trust.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Health System Affiliation and Care for Dual-Eligible and Non-Dual-Eligible Medicare Beneficiaries.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Facilitators and barriers to deferring imaging for acute low back pain: a qualitative study.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Quantifying, Understanding and Enhancing Relational Continuity of Care (QUERCC): a mixed-methods protocol.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Navigating fragmented services: a gender-based violence (GBV) critical feminist analysis of women's experiences engaging with health and social supports in three Canadian cities.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Patients' loyalty to primary care institutions and associated factors in China: a cross-sectional study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Bridging the trust divide: identifying and addressing critical gaps in patient-provider communication.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Understanding access to general practice through the lens of candidacy: a critical review of the literature.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Review
- Physician factors affecting patient preferences in selecting a primary care provider: A qualitative research study in Singapore.PloS one · 2024Article
- The impact of eHealth on relationships and trust in primary care: a review of reviews.BMC primary care · 2023Review
- The Role of Primary Care in Advancing Civic Engagement and Health Equity: A Conceptual Framework.The Milbank quarterly · 2023Article
- Indicators of the dimensions of trust (and mistrust) in early primary care practice: a qualitative study.BMC primary care · 2023Article
- Factors within A Veterinarian-Cattle Farmer Relationship That May Impact on Biosecurity Being Carried out on Farms: An Exploratory Study.Veterinary sciences · 2023Article
- Physicians' professionalism from the patients' perspective: a qualitative study at a single-family practice in Saudi Arabia.BMC medical ethics · 2023Article
- Evolutionary game theory and simulations based on doctor and patient medical malpractice.PloS one · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeThe relationship between continuity of care and patient trust in primary care is not fully understood. We report an empirical investigation, informed by game theory, of patients' accounts of their trust in general practitioners (GPs).
methodsWe conducted an analysis based on the constant comparative method of 20 semistructured interviews with patients about trust in GPs in the United Kingdom.
resultsPeople use institutional trust, derived from expectations of medicine as an institution and doctors as professionals, as a starting point for their transactions with unfamiliar doctors. This expectation may be enough to allow patients the minimum of what they want from doctors and is often sufficient for single-episode encounters, where patients have specific goals. Repeated interactions with the same doctor can allow patients to develop more secure expectations, based on a history of other interactions and anticipation of future interactions. Secure trust can develop over time, especially if patients are convinced that the doctor has their interests at heart.
conclusionsThis work identifies dynamics inherent in repeated interactions that enable secure trust to develop. These findings have important implications for the design of services, which in the United Kingdom and elsewhere are increasingly focused on enhancing access rather than continuity. They suggest that patients do not see GPs as interchangeable and that the move toward organizing services around single encounters may disrupt the development of secure trust.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.