ReviewAnnals of family medicine
The Impact of Interpersonal Continuity of Primary Care on Health Care Costs and Use: A Critical Review.
Review in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 50 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
50 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Patient reported measures of continuity of care and health outcomes: a systematic review.BMC primary care · 2024Pooled it
- Midwife continuity of care models versus other models of care for childbearing women.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Continuity of care in the context of a primary health care reform: a follow-up after the SwedishScandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Development of a novel GP continuity measurement for practices without personal lists: a two-practice pilot of the modified SLICC.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Sustaining named GP continuity requires organisational change: a comparative implementation analysis in Finland.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- [A primary care system in Germany: evidence, opportunities, and implementation].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2026Review
- Cost savings from primary care clinic continuity among patients with chronic disease in Alberta, Canada: a retrospective population-level cross-sectional study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Continuity of care measurement across health systems: UK and US insights for global primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Maintaining continuity in fragmented healthcare systems.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2026Article
- The Power of Primary Care to Improve Health.Annals of family medicine · 2026Article
- Qualitative study to explore which components of home-based primary care may reduce emergency department visits among older adults.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Assigned But Not Anchored: A Study of Primary Care Provider Utilization Among Covered California Enrollees.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Association of General Practice Continuity With Hospital Admissions and Costs: A Retrospective Study.Annals of family medicine · 2026Article
- Primary Health Care Services and Continuity of Care Are Associated With Better Health Outcomes in the Older Population.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- Primary Care Access and the Role of Telemedicine for Traditional Medicare Beneficiaries.JAMA health forum · 2026Article
- Effect of continuity of care on medical expenditures for hypertensive patients in high-altitude areas of China.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Why has continuity of general practitioner care been neglected?International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2026Article
- Scottish GP walk-in centres: access at the expense of continuity?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Dad Days: The Joys and Challenges of Extended Partial Parental Leave.Annals of family medicine · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issuedCorrection.2025
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeInterpersonal continuity has been shown to play an essential role in primary care's salutary effects. Amid 2 decades of rapid evolution in the health care payment model, we sought to summarize the range of peer-reviewed literature relating continuity to health care costs and use, information critical to assessing the need for continuity measurement in value-based payment design.
methodsAfter comprehensively reviewing prior continuity literature, we used a combination of established medical subject headings (MeSH) and key words to search PubMed, Embase, and Scopus for articles published between 2002 and 2022 on "continuity of care" and "continuity of patient care," and payor-relevant outcomes, including cost of care, health care costs, cost of health care, total cost of care, utilization, ambulatory care-sensitive conditions, and hospitalizations for these conditions. We limited our search to primary care key words, MeSH terms, and other controlled vocabulary, including primary care, primary health care, family medicine, family practice, pediatrics, and internal medicine.
resultsOur search yielded 83 articles describing studies that were published between 2002 and 2022. Of these, 18 studies having a total of 18 unique outcomes examined the association between continuity and health care costs, and 79 studies having a total of 142 unique outcomes assessed the association between continuity and health care use. Interpersonal continuity was associated with significantly lower costs or more favorable use for 109 of the 160 outcomes.
conclusionsInterpersonal continuity today remains significantly associated with lower health care costs and more appropriate use. Further research is needed to disaggregate these associations at the clinician, team, practice, and system levels, but continuity assessment is clearly important to designing value-based payment for primary care.
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.