ArticleAfrican journal of primary health care & family medicine2017
Examining the influence of family physician supply on district health system performance in South Africa: An ecological analysis of key health indicators.
Article in African journal of primary health care & family medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Family physician deployment in South Africa's district health system: A cross-sectional study.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2026Article
- Creating the evidence for family medicine advocacy in Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring stakeholders' experiences on implementing family medicine in urban South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Lessons learnt from advocating for family medicine in South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Factors affecting family medicine programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa: a narrative review of recent literature.Ghana medical journal · 2022Review
- Perceptions of specialists in the public sector, on the role and value of family medicine.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2022Article
- Article
- The attitude and perceptions of doctors at Letaba Hospital towards family medicine: A qualitative study.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2020Article
- A scoping review on family medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: practice, positioning and impact in African health care systems.Human resources for health · 2020Article
- The retention of physicians to primary health care in Brazil: motivation and limitations from a qualitative perspective.BMC health services research · 2019Article
- The impact of family physician supply on district health system performance, clinical processes and clinical outcomes in the Western Cape Province, South Africa (2011-2014).African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2018Article
- The perceived impact of family physicians on the district health system in South Africa: a cross-sectional survey.BMC family practice · 2018Article
- The Influence of Family Physicians Within the South African District Health System: A Cross-Sectional Study.Annals of family medicine · 2018Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe supply of appropriate health workers is a key building block in the World Health Organization's model of effective health systems. Primary care teams are stronger if they contain doctors with postgraduate training in family medicine. The contribution of such family physicians to the performance of primary care systems has not been evaluated in the African context. Family physicians with postgraduate training entered the South African district health system (DHS) from 2011.
aimThis study aimed to evaluate the impact of family physicians within the DHS of South Africa. The objectives were to evaluate the impact of an increase in family physician supply in each district (number per 10 000 population) on key health indicators.
settingAll 52 South African health districts were included as units of analysis.
methodsAn ecological study evaluated the correlations between the supply of family physicians and routinely collected data on district performance for two time periods: 2010/2011 and 2014/2015.
resultsFive years after the introduction of the new generation of family physicians, this study showed no demonstrable correlation between family physician supply and improved health indicators from the macro-perspective of the district.
conclusionThe lack of a measurable impact at the level of the district is most likely because of the very low supply of family physicians in the public sector. Studies which evaluate impact closer to the family physician's circle of control may be better positioned to demonstrate a measurable impact in the short term.
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.