Table 1.

Main features of SP studies included in our analyses

Study site (year)	SP–provider interactions	Tracer conditions	Healthcare sector	Facility location	Provider selection approach	Provider consent	Provider participation*
China (2013)	600	Angina, child diarrhoea	Public	Rural	Census of all clinics designated under the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (ie, the major public health insurance programme in rural areas), followed by random selection of providers	Yes	100%
China (2015)	299	Presumptive TB	Public	Rural	Census of all public providers followed by random sampling from one prefecture in each of 3 provinces out of a total of 47 prefectures, chosen to be representative of rural health systems	Yes	274/274 (100%)
Kenya (2014)	166	Angina, asthma, child diarrhoea, presumptive TB	Public and private	Urban	Non-random convenience sample designed to include low-income, middle-income and high-income neighbourhoods in various Nairobi areas	Yes	46/49 (93.9%)
Madhya Pradesh, India (2010–2011)	1123	Angina, asthma, child diarrhoea	Public and private	Rural	Census of all medical care providers working in 60 villages randomly sampled in three districts in Madhya Pradesh; all public providers and qualified private providers were automatically sampled; for each public provider, the closest private practitioner was also sampled	No	Not applicable
Delhi, India (2014)	250	Presumptive and confirmed TB, presumptive MDR-TB	Private	Urban	Convenience sample (pilot study)	Yes	Not available
Mumbai and Patna, India (2014–2015)	2602	Presumptive and confirmed TB, presumptive MDR-TB	Private	Urban	Street-by-street mapping of private providers who were known to see adult outpatients with respiratory symptoms, followed by random sampling stratified by provider qualification and private provider interface agency registration status	No	Not applicable
Birbhum district, West Bengal, India (2012–2014)	823	Angina, respiratory distress, child diarrhoea	Private	Rural	Census of private health providers who had been practising for at least 3 years in 203 villages across Birbhum district	Yes	304/360 (84.4%)
Mumbai, Patna and Delhi, India (2014–2015)	1200	Presumptive TB, confirmed TB	Pharmacies	Urban	Convenience sample of 54 pharmacies from 28 low-income localities in Delhi (pilot phase), random sampling of pharmacies in Mumbai and Patna from a list of all pharmacies registered in the two cities	No	Not applicable
Udupi district, Karnataka, India (2018)	1522	For both adults and children: upper respiratory tract infection, diarrhoea, presumptive malaria	Pharmacies	Urban and rural	Of the 350 pharmacies registered in the district as per the local pharmacy association, 279 were considered eligible for the study after excluding those operating inside hospitals (47), those permanently closed or under renovations (10), those that could not be identified by the field team (4), those for veterinarian purposes only (1) and those used for SP training (10).	No	Not applicable

*For studies in which provider consent was required.

MDR-TB, multidrug resistant tuberculosis; SP, standardised patient; TB, tuberculosis.