ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2013
Continuity of GP care is related to reduced specialist healthcare use: a cross-sectional survey.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Personal GP continuity improves healthcare outcomes in primary care populations: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Pooled it
- Optimising personal continuity for older patients in general practice: a cluster randomised stepped wedge pragmatic trial.BMJ open · 2024Trial
- Impact on all-cause mortality of a case prediction and prevention intervention designed to reduce secondary care utilisation: findings from a randomised controlled trial.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2023Trial
- Optimising personal continuity in general practice: process evaluation of a toolkit.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Bridging success in the labour market: does continuity of general practitioners' care matter for individuals with common mental disorders?The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Article
- Use of general practitioner services among high-cost older patients in somatic hospitals - a Norwegian registry-based study.BMC health services research · 2026Observational
- Continuity of primary care and its impact on prognosis in patients with heart failure referred for cardiology consultation.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Care in the era of digital health: experiences from Norwegian general practitioners.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2025Article
- Importance of continuity of care from a patient perspective - a cross-sectional study in Swedish health care.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Longitudinal care continuity and avoidable hospitalization: the application of claims-based measures.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Patient experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study in Dutch primary care.BJGP open · 2022Article
- Continuity of care for patients with chronic disease: a registry-based observational study from Norway.Family practice · 2022Observational
- Impact of a case-management intervention for reducing emergency attendance on primary care: randomised control trial.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Article
- GP strategies to avoid imaging overuse. A qualitative study in Norwegian general practice.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2022Article
- Article
- Continuity in general practice as predictor of mortality, acute hospitalisation, and use of out-of-hours care: a registry-based observational study in Norway.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Observational
- Conditions for gatekeeping when GPs consider patient requests unreasonable: a focus group study.Family practice · 2022Article
- Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey.PloS one · 2022Article
- Optimising personal continuity for older patients in general practice: a study protocol for a cluster randomised stepped wedge pragmatic trial.BMC family practice · 2021Article
- Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundContinuity of GP care is associated with reduced hospitalisations, but solid documentation of its relationship to use of outpatient specialist services is lacking.
aimTo test the association between continuity of GP care and use of inpatient and outpatient specialist services. DESIGN AND
settingA cross-sectional population-based study with questionnaire data from the sixth Tromsø Study (2007-2008).
methodDescriptive statistics and two sample t-test were used to estimate specialist healthcare use according to duration of the GP-patient relationship. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess associations between duration and intensity of the GP-patient relationship and use of specialist care. Analyses were adjusted for sex, age, marital status, income, education, and self-rated health, and also stratified by self-rated health and age.
resultsOf 10,624 eligible GP users, 85% had seen the same GP for >2 years. The probability of visiting outpatient specialist services was significantly lower among these participants compared to those with a shorter GP relationship (odds ratio [OR] = 0.81, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 0.71 to 0.92). Similar findings were found for hospitalisations (OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.64 to 0.90). Stratified analyses revealed that these associations were not dependent on self-rated health or age. The probability of specialist use increased for the frequent GP users.
conclusionContinuity of GP care is associated with reduced use of outpatient specialist services and hospitalisations. Healthcare providers and policymakers who wish to limit use of specialist health care may do well to perform and organise health services in ways that support continuity in general practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.