ArticlePLOS global public health2022
Most common reasons for primary care visits in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review.
Article in PLOS global public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assistive technologies (lumbar supports and other devices) for treating chronic low back pain.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Information about the natural history of acute infections commonly seen in primary care: a systematic review of clinical practice guidelines.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Pooled it
- Zoledronic acid produces analgesia by inhibiting the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Barriers and facilitators to implementing e-learning for infection management in primary care: a scoping review.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Patient representation in RNA signature studies for detecting and predicting the outcomes of febrile illnesses: a scoping review.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Teaching Personalized Doctor-Patient Communication with AI: PerTRAIN - a Prototype for Interpersonally Responsive Virtual Patients in Medical Education.Perspectives on medical education · 2026Article
- Integrating symptom science and precision health to enhance palliative care outcomes.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- What are the primary care physicians and cardiologists talking about? a cross-sectional analysis of two telemedicine services in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic and lifestyle factors associated with chronic musculoskeletal disorders in Brazil: a network analysis of a population-based study involving 87,648 Brazilian adults.Therapeutic advances in chronic disease · 2025Article
- The value of diagnostic imaging for enhancing primary care in low- and middle-income countries.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Article
- Point-of-care biochemistry for primary healthcare in low-middle income countries: a qualitative inquiry.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Finding the missed millions: innovations to bring tuberculosis diagnosis closer to key populations.BMC global and public health · 2024Review
- Saxon Epidemiological Study in General Practice-6 (SESAM-6): protocol of a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2024Article
- The World Health Organization Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders and the headache revolution: from headache burden to a global action plan for headache disorders.The journal of headache and pain · 2024Review
- [A conceptual framework for good preventive practices (or for quaternary prevention)].Cadernos de saude publica · 2024Article
- Care pathways of individuals with tuberculosis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bandung, Indonesia.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Changes in reasons for visits to primary care after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: An international comparative study by the International Consortium of Primary Care Big Data Researchers (INTRePID).PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Use of primary health care services and mortality in older patients with type 2 diabetes with or without comorbidities.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2023Article
- External validation of clinical severity scores to guide referral of paediatric acute respiratory infections in resource-limited primary care settings.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Rethinking headache as a global public health case model for reaching the SDG 3 HEALTH by 2030.The journal of headache and pain · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
With the Covid-19 pandemic and the introduction of the WHO's Essential Diagnostics List (EDL), increasing global attention is focused on the crucial role of diagnostics in achieving universal health coverage. To create national EDLs and to aid health system planning, it is vital to understand the most common conditions with which people present at primary care health facilities. We undertook a systematic review of the most common reasons for primary care visits in low- and middle-income countries. Six databases were searched for articles published between January 2009 and December 2019, with the search updated on MEDLINE to January 2021. Data on the most common patient reasons for encounter (RFEs) and provider diagnoses were collected. 17 of 22,279 screened articles were included. Most studies used unvalidated diagnostic classification systems or presented provider diagnosis data grouped by organ system, rather than presenting specific diagnoses. No studies included data from low-income countries. Only four studies (from Brazil, India, Nigeria and South Africa) using the ICPC-2 classification system contained RFE and provider diagnosis data and could be pooled. The top five RFEs from the four studies were headache, fever, back or low back symptom, cough and pain general/multiple sites. The top five diagnoses were uncomplicated hypertension, upper respiratory tract infection, type 2 diabetes, malaria and health maintenance/prevention. No psychological symptoms were among the top 10 pooled RFEs. There was more variation in top diagnoses between studies than top RFEs, showing the importance of creating location-specific lists of essential diagnostics for primary care. Future studies should aim to sample primary care facilities from across their country of study and use ICPC-3 to report both patient RFEs and provider diagnoses.
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.