Table 2:

Summary of the advantages of different types of continuity

Area/discipline	Type of continuity	Advantages
Preventive medicine and general health	Geographic	Patients reported better screening of blood pressure, cholesterol, and cervical cytology. They reported ease of following advice for smoking cessation, exercise and diet
	Longitudinal	Improvement in control of hypertension and more compliance with medication Blood pressure and cholesterol are checked regularly Decrease in illness visits	Improvement in diagnosis of bacterial meningitis Fewer missed appointments Less smoking, more exercise and weight control
Maternity and child health	Relational (midwife)	Reduced risk of white coat hypertension, pre-eclampsia and use of epidural anaesthesia	Low rates of episiotomy, perineal lacerations and electronic foetal monitoring
	Team (midwifery)	Low rate of Caesarean Section and reduction in analgesic requirements during delivery.	Higher birth weight of infants and fewer admissions of infants to a neonatal intensive care unit
	Longitudinal	Good maintenance of the child’s developmental and immunisation profile	Reduced incidence of rheumatic fever in children
Behavioural, mental and psycho-social health	Team	Reduced risk of re-admission of psychiatric patients and risk of suicide
	Relational	Increased trust, confidence, and rapport between the patient and the healthcare professional; patient discloses psychosocial problems Greater enablement in the consultation and increased patient satisfaction Patients less likely to have drug and alcohol abuse behaviour Healthcare professionals became better at understanding patients’ social and family context; they becomes better at identifying patients’ psychosocial problems and unspecific symptoms
Cancer	Geographic	Better screening of cervical cytology
	Longitudinal	Better cancer screening
Asthma	Relational	Better emotional and mental well-being
	Longitudinal	Good communication with the healthcare professional
Diabetes	Relational	Better emotional and mental well-being
	Longitudinal	Good preventive measurements (more foot examinations, blood glucose monitoring, retinal examinations, etc.) and usually better diabetic control
	Team	Good diabetic control