Knowledge gap of primary health care system in Nigeria: A conceptual difference in authorís affiliation

Globally, the assessment of health research to understand different content and gaps will support the effectiveness and attainment of sustainable development goals in 2023. This study investigated the knowledge gap of the Primary Health Care (PHC) system in Nigeria by the conceptual difference in the author's affiliation. The study used publication data from the PubMed database from 2015 to 2022 on Nigeria Primary Health Care (NPHC) OR Nigeria PHC. Two hundred and ninety-six (296) articles were reviewed for this study. At the multivariate level, a structural topic model was used to build and estimate the significant effect of topics, topic correlation and variability of topic relationship by author's affiliation (foreign or national authors). The results reveal that 59.2% of authors were Nigerian-based, highest journal publishers were PloS One and BMC Health Services Research. From the topic variability, research on disease prevention, quality health care, immunization and implementation of health care practices were mostly pioneered by foreign authors. In contrast, research on service/programmes, consequences, workers' knowledge and locality were from national-based authors. This study recommended targeted interventions to enhance healthcare workers' knowledge, emphasizing collaborative efforts among various healthcare professionals. Initiatives should focus on building the capacity of healthcare facilities, especially in rural areas, and promoting preventive measures such as immunization.