Association between continuity of care (COC), healthcare use and costs: what can we learn from claims data? A rapid review

Table 3 Associations between outcomes and COC in the studies

Outcomes	Total number of studies	Number of studies observing significant improvement in outcomes associated with improved COC
Costs	14 [18, 20, 37, 41, 43,44,45, 47, 53,54,55, 57, 66, 77]	12 [18, 20, 37, 41, 45, 47, 53,54,55, 57, 66, 77]
All-cause and disease-specific hospitalizations	29 [18, 20, 27, 37, 38, 41, 42, 44,45,46, 48,49,50,51, 53,54,55, 57, 59,60,61,62, 67,68,69, 71, 73, 75, 76]	26 [18, 20, 27, 37, 38, 41, 45, 46, 48,49,50,51, 53,54,55, 57, 59,60,61,62, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 76]
Avoidable hospitalizations and ACSC	9 [20, 27, 42, 63,64,65, 68, 70, 73]	7 [20, 27, 64, 65, 68, 70, 73]
ED use	19 [18, 20, 27, 39, 40, 45,46,47, 51,52,53, 55, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 71, 73]	18 [18, 20, 27, 39, 40, 45,46,47, 51,52,53, 55, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 71]
Hospital readmissions	3 [66, 72, 74]	3 [66, 72, 74]
Outpatient visits use	1 [26]	1 [26]

Some studies reported on multiple outcomes, whereby one study found mixed results for two outcomes: all-cause hospitalizations and costs [44]

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