Low-value care
Quality Management
Definition. Low-value care is care that offers little or no benefit to patients, may cause harm, or costs more than alternatives with similar outcomes.
Explanation
Campaigns such as Choosing Wisely aim to reduce low-value tests and treatments, but their effect depends on patients’ health literacy (Muscat et al., 2024). Reducing low-value care also lowers the carbon footprint of health systems (Lynch et al., 2024).
De-implementation is often harder than implementation because it requires stopping familiar practices.
Related concepts
Implementation science Health literacy Sustainable healthcare Value-based healthcare Shared decision-making
Read on The Health Topics
- Health Literacy and Healthcare Decision-Making Equity
- Clinicians’ Carbon Health Literacy and Sustainable Care
References
Lynch, M., McCaffery, K., Barratt, A., Bell, K., Miller, F. A., McGain, F., Colagiuri, P., & Pickles, K. (2024). Australian and Canadian clinicians’ views and application of ‘carbon health literacy’: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research, 24 (1), 1457. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11903-2
Muscat, D. M., Cvejic, E., Smith, J., Thompson, R., Chang, E., Tracy, M., Zadro, J., & McCaffery, K. (2024). Equity in Choosing Wisely and beyond: the effect of health literacy on healthcare decision-making and methods to support conversations about overuse. BMJ Quality & Safety. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017411
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Low-value care. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/low-value-care/
Articles that discuss this concept
3 articles on The Health Topics mention this concept. Most relevant first.