ArticleBMC geriatrics2019
"They don't care about us": older people's experiences of primary healthcare in Cape Town, South Africa.
Article in BMC geriatrics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Attributes of family physician encounters valued by older adults: a systematic review.BMC primary care · 2025Pooled it
- The lingering impacts of COVID-19 on older women in Kenya and Uganda: A quantitative analysis of health, wellbeing, and WASH insecurity.Journal of public health research · 2026Article
- Ethical issues in caring for older persons in Sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Ethical Issues in Caring for Older Persons in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review.Research square · 2026Article
- "We Do Not Seem to Have Geriatric Wards": A Qualitative Analysis of Gaps in Healthcare Access Among Older Patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Trauma exposure as a predictor of general health outcomes and trauma-related beliefs among older adults living in an adverse environment.Aging & mental health · 2025Article
- The Experience of Accessing Primary Healthcare Centres in a Lebanese Community: Perspectives of Older People, Family Members and Service Providers.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025Article
- Global, regional, and national burden of idiopathic epilepsy in older adults, 1990-2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- The Prevalence of Falls Among Older Adults Living in Long-Term Care Facilities in the City of Cape Town.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Barriers and Enablers of Health Services Utilisation in Rural Communities of Nkomazi Sub-District in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa: A Quantitative Community Survey.Health services insights · 2025Article
- Barriers and enablers to primary health care center access for older people in Lebanon: A qualitative inquiry.PloS one · 2025Article
- Older people's challenges accessing health services in central Nepal: a qualitative study using the domain of access framework.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Ideal Clinic Realisation and Maintenance programme implementation in rural KwaZulu-Natal.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2024Article
- Primary health care challenges: insights from older people with multimorbidity in Malawi - a qualitative study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- The Social Construction of Aging Among a Clinic-Based Population and Their Healthcare Workers in Zambia.International journal of public health · 2024Article
- "Ọmụgwọ" As Unpaid Labor? The Perceptions of Postpartum Caregiving Among Older Grandmothers in Southeast Nigeria.Innovation in aging · 2024Article
- The relationships between race, employment, and self-rated health among older South Africans: exploring the mediating role of generalized anxiety.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- User Satisfaction with Primary Health Care Rehabilitation Services in a South African Metropolitan District.Journal of patient experience · 2024Article
- Access of older people to primary health care in low and middle-income countries: A systematic scoping review.PloS one · 2024Article
- Struggles over elder care in South Africa.Development Southern Africa · 2024Article
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 at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAs older people age, they have different health needs compared to younger people. South African elder care policy places a strong emphasis on ageing in community rather than institutional settings, but the primary healthcare system is not geared to address the health needs of older people living in community settings.
methodsThis paper presents findings of nine focus groups conducted with community-dwelling older adults in three areas (high, medium and low-income) in Cape Town, South Africa over 2 months in 2017. These discussions addressed primary health services available to older persons, their ability to access these services and their expectations and experiences of care.
resultsFindings showed that while participants in the high-income area had few challenges accessing quality care or support services, services available in lower-income areas were much less responsive and participants displayed low trust in the healthcare system, feeling that their needs were overlooked. Participants who experienced poor doctor-patient communication often failed to comply with treatment, while those who experienced patient-centered communication, either through the private sector or NGO-public sector partnerships had better perceptions of care.
conclusionsOlder persons' complex health needs cannot be adequately addressed by a process-driven approach to care. Supporting patient-centered communication and care may help health workers to understand older persons health needs and improve patient understanding, trust and co-operation. This paper suggests the importance of community support services in enhancing health access and developing systems that enable healthcare providers to better understand and respond to older persons' needs in resource-constrained settings.
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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.