The quality of primary care in community health centers: comparison among urban, suburban and rural users in Shanghai, China

Does contracting family doctor promote primary healthcare utilization among older adults? - evidence from a difference-in-differences analysis

INTRODUCTION

In 2016, the Chinese government officially scaled up family doctor contracted services (FDCS) scheme to guide patients' health seeking behavior from tertiary hospitals to primary health facilities.

METHODS

This study evaluated the overall gate-keeping effects of this scheme on healthcare utilization of rural residents by using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design. The analysis was based on Shandong Rural Elderly Health Cohort 2019 and 2020. Participants who contracted FDCS in second round and were not contracted with a family doctor in the first round were regarded as treatment group. In total, 310 respondents who have used medical care were incorporated for final study.

RESULTS

Participants who contracted FDCS (treatment group) experienced a significant decline in the mean level of first-contact health-care facilities, decreasing from 2.204 to 1.981. In contrast, participants who did not contract FDCS (control group), showed an increasing trend in the mean level of first-contact health-care facilities, rising from 2.128 to 2.445. Our results showed that contracting FDCS is associated with approximately 0.54 extra lower mean level of first-contact health-care facilities (P = 0.03, 95% CI: -1.03 to 0.05), which suggests an approximately 24.5% reduction in the mean first-contact health-care facility level for participants compared with contracted FDCS than those who did not.

CONCLUSIONS

The study suggested primary healthcare quality should be strengthened and restrictive first point of contact policy should be enacted to establish ordered healthcare seeking behavior among rural residents.

[Systematic review of the primary care quality assessment instruments used in the last 10 years]

OBJECTIVE

There are numerous instruments in the scientific literature for the evaluation of the quality of Primary Care (PC) and to know which of them are the most used and in which countries provides more information to make a well-founded decision. The aim is to determine which, between 2013 and 2023, have been the instruments used to assess the international quality of PC, its evolution and geographical distribution.

DESIGN

Systematic review.

DATA SOURCES

PubMed and Embase. From March to December 2023.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

1) Validation studies of specific assessment instruments to measure the quality of PC and/or the satisfaction of patients, providers or managers. 2) carried out in the field of PC and 3) published between 1/01/2013 and 01/02/2023. 83 full-text articles were included.

DATA EXTRACTION

From each publication, an instrument used to evaluate the quality of the PC, attributes of the PC it evaluates, recipient of the evaluation, user, provider or manager, year, and country.

RESULTS

Fifteen PC assessment instruments were found. The most widely used is the Primary Care Assessing Tool (PCAT), with wide geographical distribution, versions in several languages, is more limited in Europe, except in Spain, and is mostly used in the Primary Care Assessing Tool (PCAT).

CONCLUSIONS

The PCAT, due to its cultural adaptability, availability in several languages, its ability to evaluate the fundamental principles of PC enunciated by the World Health Organization and to contemplate the perspectives of all health agents, is a complete, versatile, and consistent questionnaire for the evaluation of the quality of PC.

Characteristics and influencing factors of caregivers' healthcare preferences for young children under COVID-19 lockdown: a cross-sectional study in Shanghai, China

BACKGROUND

Missed or delayed child healthcare caused by the COVID-19 lockdown has threatened young children's health and has had an unpredictable influence on caregivers' child healthcare preferences. This study investigated caregivers' child healthcare preferences and the factors that influence them among families with young children (0-3 years) during the lockdown in Shanghai.

METHODS

Participants in this cross-sectional study were enrolled through random encounter sampling. Questionnaires were distributed online from June 1 to November 10, 2022, in Shanghai. A total of 477 valid questionnaires were received. The demographics of caregivers and their families, children's characteristics, COVID-19-related information, and caregivers' healthcare preferences were analyzed. The statistical analyses included frequency and percentage, chi-square tests, and multinomial logistic regression.

RESULTS

Caregivers preferred child healthcare professionals in the community health service system (CHS; 47.6%) followed by hospital pediatricians (40.0%) during lockdown. Caregivers with the following characteristics preferred CHS: those with an annual household income of CNY 200,000-300,000, those whose youngest children were aged 8-12 months, and those who experienced early childhood physical development issues. Caregivers preferred hospitals if they had experienced healthcare-seeking-related difficulties in accessing professional guidance from hospital pediatricians.

CONCLUSIONS

During pandemic lockdowns, policymakers should allocate more resources to CHS to meet caregivers' childcare demands. Moreover, special attention should be given to the healthcare needs for CHS among families with specific demographics.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine School of Public Health (SJUPN-202,109; June 1, 2022).

How to promote changes in primary care? The Florentine experience of the House of Community

Primary care (PC) has a central role in promoting health and preventing diseases, even during health emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how strengthening comprehensive primary healthcare (c-PHC) services is key to ensuring community health. The Italian government decided to support PHC by investing resources from the Next Generation EU (NextGenEu) plan in the development of local health districts (LHDs) and local PC centers called "Houses of Community (HoC)". The Florence LHD (Tuscany)-in direct collaboration with the University of Florence-has represented the experimental context in which a c-PHC-inspired organizational model has been proposed and included the HoC as the nearest access point to PC services. Through multiprofessional collaboration practices, HoCs provide continuity of care as well as health and social integration. Different levels of action must coexist to initiate, implement, and sustain this new PC model: the organizational and managerial level, the experimentation of a new model of care, and the research level, which includes universities and LHD through participatory research and action approaches. This process benefits from health professionals' (HPs) participation and continuous assessment, the care for working relationships between HPs and services, an appropriate research methodology together with a "permeable" multidisciplinary research group, and educational programs. In this context, the HoC assumes the role of a permanent laboratory of experimentation in PC, supporting the effectiveness of care and answering what the Next Gen EU plan has been foreseeing for the rethinking of Italian territorial services.

WeChat official accounts' posts on medication use of 251 community healthcare centers in Shanghai, China: content analysis and quality assessment

Background

The dissemination of online health information (OHI) on medication use via WeChat Official Accounts (WOAs) is an effective way to help primary care practitioners (PCPs) address drug-related problems (DRPs) in the community. Although an increasing number of primary care institutions in China have published WOA posts on medication use, their content and quality have not yet been assessed.

Objective

This study aimed to explore the general features and content of WOA posts on medication use published by community healthcare centers (CHCs) in Shanghai, China and to assess their quality of content. It also aimed to explore the factors associated with the number of post views.

Methods

From June 1 to October 31, 2022, two coauthors independently screened WOA posts on medication use published throughout 2021 by the CHCs in Shanghai. Content analysis was performed to analyze their general features (format, length, and source, etc.) and content (types of medicines and diseases). The QUEST tool was used to assess the quality of the posts. We compared the differences among posts published by CHCs in central urban areas and suburban areas, and used multiple linear regression to explore the factors associated with the number of post views.

Results

A total of 236 WOAs of interest published 37,147 posts in 2021, and 275 (0.74%) of them were included in the study. The median number of post views was 152. Thirty percent of the posts were reviewed by the CHCs' staff before publication and only 6% provided information on PCPs' consultations. The most commonly mentioned medicines and diseases in the posts were Chinese patent medicines (37.1%) and respiratory diseases (29.5%). The posts frequently provided information on indications (77%) and usage (56%) but rarely on follow-up (13%) and storage (11%). Of the posts, 94.9% had a total QUEST score < 17 (full score = 28). The median number of post views and total post quality scores did not significantly differ among the CHCs in central urban and suburban areas. In the multiple linear regression model, the number of post views was associated with scores of complementarity (B = 56.47, 95% CI 3.05, 109.89) and conflict of interest (B = -46.40, 95% CI -56.21, -36.60).

Conclusion

The quantity and quality of WOA posts on medication use published by CHCs in China need improvement. The quality of posts may partially impact the dissemination effect, but intrinsic causal associations merit further exploration.

Spatial Accessibility Evaluation and Location Optimization of Primary Healthcare in China: A Case Study of Shenzhen

The unbalanced allocation of healthcare resources is a major challenge that hinders access to healthcare. Taking Shenzhen as an example, this study aimed to enhance equity in obtaining healthcare services, through measuring and visualizing the spatial accessibility of community healthcare centers (CHC), and optimizing CHC geospatial allocation. We used the number of health technicians per 10,000 to represent the CHC's service capacity, combined with resident points and census data to calculate the population the CHC needs to carry, and then analyzed the accessibility based on the Gaussian two-step floating catchment area method. In 2020, five regions in Shenzhen had better spatial accessibility scores: Nanshan (0.250), Luohu (0.246), Futian (0.244), Dapeng (0.226), and Yantian (0.196). The spatial accessibility of CHCs shows a gradual decrease from the city center to the edge, which is affected by economic and topographic factors. With the support of the maximal covering location problem model, we selected up to 567 candidate locations for the new CHC, which could improve Shenzhen's accessibility score from 0.189 to 0.361 and increase the coverage population by 63.46% within a 15-min impedance. By introducing spatial techniques and maps, this study provides (a) new evidence for promoting equitable access to primary healthcare services in Shenzhen and (b) a foundation for improving the accessibility of public service facilities in other areas.

Assessing Spatial Accessibility of Community Hospitals for the Elderly in Beijing, China

Accessibility of health services signifies the quality and equitability of universal health provision. The hierarchical medical system recently implemented in China offers the policy instruments to improve medical services to the elderly in an aging society. As the critical primary care gateway, accessibility to community hospitals has significant impacts on people's health. However, current research has paid little attention to spatial accessibility within walking distance of community hospitals, especially for the elderly. This study selected four districts with different urbanization levels in the rapidly developing Beijing metropolis. The spatial interaction model was applied to measure the accessibility of community hospitals for the elderly at the community level. An attractiveness index was computed based on key hospital traits. The results showed that: (1) community hospitals could cover 82.66% of elderly residents, and 77.63% of the communities were within walking distance. The served elderly proportion was relatively high in central urban areas and low in the suburbs. (2) The attractiveness indices of hospitals varied notably between districts, with higher values in more urbanized areas. (3) The spatial accessibility for the elderly of hospitals differed significantly between the four districts, with a descending gradient from central to suburban and rural areas, as indicated by the Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves. (4) The accessibility index was strongly related to the served elderly population and the hospital-residence distance. The findings provide policy directions to the government, including providing more primary-care resources to suburban and rural areas, building new community hospitals in identified provision gaps, upgrading some clinics to hospitals in rural areas, and planning hospitals according to the projected trend of the elderly population in terms of quantity and distribution. The considerable provision disparity between core urban, suburban and rural areas can be addressed by refined spatial health planning informed by research.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practice of general practitioners toward community detection and management of mild cognitive impairment: a cross-sectional study in Shanghai, China

BACKGROUND

General practitioners (GPs) are in a unique position for community detection and management of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, adequate knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) are prerequisites for fulfilling such a role. This study aims to assess the MCI-related KAP of GPs in Shanghai, China.

METHODS

An online survey was conducted on 1253 GPs who were recruited from 56 community health centres (CHCs) in Shanghai between April and May 2021. Knowledge (8 items), attitudes (13 items), and practice (11 items) were assessed using a scale endorsed by a panel of multidisciplinary experts. An average summed score was calculated and transformed into a score ranging from 0 to 100 for knowledge, attitudes, and practice, respectively. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) were calculated for potential predictors of higher levels of KAP scores (with mean value as a cutoff point) through logistic modelling. The mediating role of attitudes on the association between knowledge and practice was tested using the PROCESS model 4 macro with 5000 bootstrap samples through linear regression modelling.

RESULTS

A total of 1253 GPs completed the questionnaire, with an average score of 54.51 ± 18.18, 57.31 ± 7.43, and 50.05 ± 19.80 for knowledge, attitudes, and practice, respectively. More than 12% of respondents scored zero in knowledge, 28.4% tended not to consider MCI as a disease, and 19.1% completely rejected MCI screening. Higher levels of knowledge were associated with more favourable attitudes toward community management of MCI (AOR = 1.974, p < 0.001). Higher compliance with practice guidelines was associated with both higher levels of knowledge (AOR = 1.426, p < 0.01) and more favourable attitudes (AOR = 2.095, p < 0.001). The association between knowledge and practice was partially mediated by attitudes (p < 0.001). Training was associated with higher levels of knowledge (AOR = 1.553, p < 0.01), while past experience in MCI management was associated with more favourable attitudes (AOR = 1.582, p < 0.05) and higher compliance with practice guidelines (AOR = 3.034, p < 0.001). MCI screening qualification was associated with higher compliance with practice guidelines (AOR = 2.162, p < 0.05), but less favourable attitudes (AOR = 0.452, p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The MCI knowledge of GPs in Shanghai is low, and is associated with less favourable attitudes toward MCI management and low compliance with practice guidelines. Attitudes mediate the association between knowledge and practice. Training is a significant predictor of knowledge. Further studies are needed to better understand how the attitudes of GPs in Shanghai are shaped by the environments in which they live and work.

The Service Capability of Primary Health Institutions under the Hierarchical Medical System

Background: Primary health institutions (PHIs) are the foundation of the whole health system and the basic link to achieve the goal of all people enjoying primary health care. However, the service capability of primary health institutions is not under the hierarchical medical system. Method: Data were collected from the China Health Statistics Yearbook between 2014 and 2020. PHIs included community health centres, community health stations, and township hospitals in our study. The service capability of primary health institutions was analysed from the perspective of structure, process, and results. Structure capability was evaluated using the number of beds, number of personnel, number of health technicians, and proportion of the number of personnel in PHIs accounting for the total number of health personnel. Process capability was evaluated using the number of general practitioners. The number of outpatients and inpatients, medical income, the proportion of drug income, and the average number of patients and beds served by physicians in PHIs per day were employed to evaluate the resulting capability. Results: From 2014 to 2020, the number of community health service centres/stations increased, while the number of township health centres decreased. In the aspect of structure capability, the total number of personnel and health technicians in community health centres/stations and township hospitals both increased during 2014 and 2020. However, the increasing rate in PHIs was a little bit less than that of general medical institutions. The proportion of male health technicians in community health centres and township hospitals both decreased, while the proportion of female technicians in both increased. From 2014 to 2020, the number of beds in PHIs also increased from 138.12 × 10⁴ to 164.94 × 10⁴. However, the proportion of beds in PHIs accounting for the total number of beds in medical institutions decreased. For the resulting capability, from 2014 to 2019, the proportion of diagnosis and treatment times in PHIs decreased from 57.41% to 51.96%, although it increased in 2020. The proportion of inpatients in PHIs decreased from 20.03% to 16.11%. From 2014 to 2020, the utilisation rate of hospital beds in PHIs decreased (from 55.6% to 34% for community health centres and 60.5% to 53.6% for township hospitals). The average daily bed days of doctors in township hospitals was higher than that of doctors in community health service centres. However, the average medical cost of outpatients and the per capita medical cost of inpatients in community health service centres were higher than in township hospitals. Conclusion: In recent years, although the service capability showed an increasing trend in PHIs, the growth rate was lower than the general health institutions. The utilisation rates of PHIs, including beds and physicians, were decreased. Among PHIs, the utilisation in township hospitals was higher than in community health centres with a relatively low price. Under the hierarchical medical system and normalisation period of the COVID-19 epidemic, it is important to improve the service capability to achieve its goal of increasing PHI utilisation and decreasing secondary and tertiary hospital utilisation.

Facilitate Signing with the Family Doctor: A Study of the Practice in Shanghai, China

Background

In the time since primary care was implemented in China in 2009, programs of promoting residents signing with family doctor services have been key. However, there has been a lack of effective evaluation of its implementation.

Methods

We used mixed methods for evaluating existing measures of facilitating signing with family doctors in Shanghai. Based on the Donabedian model, qualitative informant interviews were conducted to obtain experts’ evaluations in aspects of team construction (structure) and innovative solutions for promoting and supervising signings (process). Quantitative data were used to analyse the utilization situation (outcome) from “Shanghai Family Doctor Signing Data Platform”.

Results

Measures of signing with family doctors in Shanghai have functioned well, but there is still a lack of sufficient family doctors and specialists, including paediatricians and gynaecologists. Although proportions of the key population (average=62.59%) and the elderly population (>65 years) (average=78.10%) who had signed with family doctors were relatively high, the proportion of the permanent resident population (average=29.36%) who had signed with family doctors was low from 2017 to 2020 in Shanghai. The proportions of residents seeking medical advice in signed community health centres in outskirts (71.08%) were higher than those in suburbs (63.51%) and urban areas (53.49%), whereas the proportion of those seeking medical advice from recommended multiple medical institutions were similarly low in urban areas, outskirts and suburbs.

Conclusion

The practice of facilitate signing with family doctors in Shanghai has increased. However, we showed that numbers of family doctors were relatively low, and there remains a need for more experienced gynaecology and paediatrics professionals, compared with Western countries. Additionally, efforts should be made to increase proportions of residents who utilize the program, especially in urban areas, and seek medical services in contracted group hospitals and community health centres.