Table 3

Illustration of pros and cons of different measures of relational continuity of care

			Continuity index
Clinician group	Patient group	Criterion	SLICC	UPC	BB	Hi	SECON
Consultation with GP only	Age ages	Understandable	Good	Good	Fair	Fair	Fair
		Unaffected by consultation rate	Poor	Poor	Good	Good	Fair
		Patient conception	Fair	Fair	Good	Good	Poor
		Clinician conception	Fair	Fair	Fair	Fair	Fair
	Aged 65+ only	Understandable
		Unaffected by consultation rate
		Patient conception
		Clinician conception
Consultation with all clinical staff	All ages	Understandable
		Unaffected by consultation rate
		Patient conception
		Clinician conception
	Aged 65+ only	Understandable
		Unaffected by consultation rate
		Patient conception
		Clinician conception

BB, Bice–Boxerman index; HI, Herfindahl index; SECON, Sequential Continuity; SLICC, St Leonard’s Index of Continuity of Care; UPC, Usual Provider of Care index.