Global Health Otherwise shared on LinkedIn:
“Poor-quality primary care often goes unnoticed․
Lewis and colleagues (2026) build on longstanding concerns that patient satisfaction ratings reflect expectations more than objective quality, making it hard to interpret how populations judge their health systems.
Using the People’s Voice Survey across 18 countries, the authors tested this directly, asking over 18000 adults to rate two hypothetical primary care scenarios, one poor and one adequate.
The findings reveal a clear mismatch. A meaningful share of respondents rated the poor-quality scenario favorably, while a larger share rated the adequate-quality scenario as merely acceptable or worse.
This pattern varied widely by country, and factors such as age, gender, education, income and patient confidence in managing their own care shaped how people judged quality.
The authors argue that policymakers must invest in health literacy and patient empowerment so that populations can better recognize and demand high-quality primary care.
Across 18 countries, many people misjudge primary care quality, tolerating poor care or underrating good care. Raising health literacy and patient confidence can further help align expectations with true standards.”
Title: Population expectations of primary care quality in 18 countries: a cross-sectional analysis of data from the People’s Voice Survey
Authors: Todd P Lewis, Shalom Sabwa, Joao Breda, Susanne Carai, Emma Clarke-Deelder, Svetlana V Doubova, Günther Fink, Patricia J Garcia, Ezequiel Garcia-Elorrio, Hwa-Young Lee, Sailesh Mohan, Inbarani Naidoo, Juhwan Oh, Emelda A Okiro, Ashenif Tadele, Rosanna Tarricone, Marius-Ionuţ Ungureanu, Xiaohui Wang, Dong (Roman) Xu, Margaret E Kruk
Other articles about Global Health Otherwise and Primary Care on OncoDaily.