Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41101795›Full record

ReviewBMJ global health2025

How to measure the core functions of primary care in low-income and middle-income country settings.

Robert Mash, Innocent Besigye, Kéfilath Bello, Anna Galle

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in BMJ global health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Is primary care the 'right care' for respiratory medicine in Africa?African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2026
    Article
  3. Accelerating Community Engagement: Measuring Results.International journal of public health · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Robert MashFamily Medicine and Primary Care, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa rm@sun.ac.za.ORCID 0000-0001-7373-0774
Innocent BesigyeDepartment of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University Faculty of Medicine, Kampala, Uganda.
Kéfilath BelloLittoral Department, CNHU-HKM Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie, Cotonou, Benin.
Anna GallePublic Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0003-1427-5067

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The core functions of primary care are first contact access, comprehensiveness, continuity, coordination and person-centredness. These five core functions are highlighted as essential aspects of quality by the new WHO's measurement framework. In low-income and middle-income countries, the core functions are rarely measured and routinely collected data does not support their measurement. Existing international tools to measure the quality of primary care may evaluate some aspects of these core functions, but none of the reviewed tools focused on all of them. In sub-Saharan Africa, the Primary Care Assessment Tool has been developed over the last decade and a regional version of the tool has been validated to only measure the core functions as defined by the WHO. The tool uses exit interviews with users as recommended by the WHO. The tool has been piloted in South Africa, Uganda and Benin and will now be implemented in 11 African countries. The tool can enable low-income and middle-income countries to measure the core functions and plan interventions to improve the quality of primary care.

Indexed as

Developing CountriesPrimary Health CareQuality of Health CareAfrica South of the SaharaHealth Services AccessibilityHumansWorld Health OrganizationDelivery of Health CareGlobal HealthHealth Services AccessibilityHealth services researchHealth systems evaluation

Identifiers

PMID41101795
PMCPMC12530417

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

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.