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Operational assessment of point-of-care diagnostics in rural primary healthcare clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a cross-sectional survey

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Health Services Research, May 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (78th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (68th percentile)

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1 blog
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3 X users
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1 Facebook page

Citations

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26 Dimensions

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113 Mendeley
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Title
Operational assessment of point-of-care diagnostics in rural primary healthcare clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a cross-sectional survey
Published in
BMC Health Services Research, May 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12913-018-3207-6
Pubmed ID
Authors

T. P. Mashamba-Thompson, B. Sartorius, P. K. Drain

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) called for new clinical diagnostic for settings with limited access to laboratory services. Access to diagnostic testing may not be uniform in rural settings, which may result in poor access to essential healthcare services. The aim of this study is to determine the availability, current usage, and need for point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tests among rural primary healthcare (PHC) clinics in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province. We used the KZN's Department of Health (DoH) clinic classification to identify the 232 rural PHC clinics in KZN, South Africa. We then randomly sampled 100 of 232 rural PHC clinics. Selected health clinics were surveyed between April to August 2015 to obtain clinic-level data for health-worker volume and to determine the accessibility, availability, usage and need for POC tests. Professional healthcare workers responsible for POC testing at each clinic were interviewed to assess the awareness of POC testing. Data were survey weighted and analysed using Stata 13. Among 100 rural clinics, the average number of patients seen per week was 2865 ± 2231 (range 374-11,731). The average number of POC tests available and in use was 6.3 (CI: 6.2-6.5) out of a potential of 51 tests. The following POC tests were universally available in all rural clinics: urine total protein, urine leukocytes, urine nitrate, urine pregnancy, HIV antibody and blood glucose test. The average number of desired POC diagnostic tests reported by the clinical staff was estimated at 15 (CI: 13-17) per clinic. The most requested POC tests reported were serum creatinine (37%), CD4 count (37%), cholesterol (32%), tuberculosis (31%), and HIV viral load (23%). Several POC tests are widely available and in use at rural PHC clinics in South Africa's KZN province. However, healthcare workers have requested additional POC tests to improve detection and management of priority disease conditions. Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT02692274.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 3 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 113 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 113 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 21 19%
Researcher 16 14%
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 8%
Student > Bachelor 7 6%
Other 7 6%
Other 17 15%
Unknown 36 32%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 21 19%
Nursing and Health Professions 13 12%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 6 5%
Social Sciences 6 5%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 4%
Other 26 23%
Unknown 37 33%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 June 2018.
All research outputs
#3,659,148
of 23,081,466 outputs
Outputs from BMC Health Services Research
#1,615
of 7,730 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#72,332
of 331,250 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Health Services Research
#63
of 207 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,081,466 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 84th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,730 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 79% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 331,250 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 207 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 68% of its contemporaries.