[Usefulness of multilevel analysis of satisfaction questionnaires on clinical units and medical specialties]

Analysis of adherence to HIV-positive quality of care indicators and their impact on service quality perceptions in patients: a Spanish cross-sectional study

Background

Since the identification of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, there have been significant advances in its diagnosis and treatment, but there have been few contributions to the area of care quality. In 2010, the Spanish AIDS Study Group (GeSIDA) published the document “Health quality indicators of GeSIDA for the care of people infected with HIV/AIDS” in which standards are proposed for the purpose of improving and standardizing the assistance provided to people infected with HIV. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree of compliance with these indicators and to analyse whether adherence to the standards improves patient perception of care quality in terms of their satisfaction with the health care they have received.

Methods

Compliance with GeSIDA indicators was analysed within a cohort of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in a hospital in the Madrid region. To evaluate patient perception, the External Consultation User Satisfaction Questionnaire (SUCE) was used, which is a tool that was previously validated in the Spanish population.

Results

A total of 334 patients were included. The level of adherence to the indicators was 74.46%. The score on the SUCE questionnaire was 9.04 out of 10 (CI 95%: 8.90–9.19). Of the 47 indicators assessed, only 4 were related to satisfaction with health care.

Conclusions

The levels of compliance with the indicators and patient satisfaction with health care were high. Adherence to quality indicators showed little relation to patient-reported satisfaction.

[Relevance of the socioeconomic and health context in patient satisfaction]

OBJECTIVE

To determine which factors of the socioeconomic and health contexts influence the perception of the satisfaction of the population with the health services.

METHODS

The data come from the European Health Survey of 2009. In the 22,188 subjects surveyed, the relationship between the perception of satisfaction with the health services received and the individual and contextual variables was studied, applying a multilevel analysis.

RESULTS

The factors of the socioeconomic and health contexts that influence satisfaction are: higher rates of low level of studies where the perception of excellence is less likely (odds ratio [OR]: 0.48-0.82) and dissatisfaction is more prevalent (OR: 1.46-1.63). Likewise, the proportion of unsatisfied citizens is lower when per capita expenditure on health services is very high (>1400 €) (OR: 0.49-0.87) and the ratio "primary health care physicians/inhabitants" is high (>60) (OR: 0.500.85). In addition, the prevalence of dissatisfaction describes a positive linear trend with the unemployment rate (OR: 1.12; p=0.0001) and the relative magnitude of the services sector (OR: 1.03; p=0.001). By contrast, this linear trend is negative as the Health Care Coverage Ratio increases (OR: 0.88; p=0.04).

CONCLUSIONS

The individual factors that determine patient satisfaction are: sex, age, mental health and country of birth. In addition, there are differences in patient satisfaction among the autonomous communities according to socio-economic determinants such as GDP per capita, low-level study rates, unemployment rates or number of inhabitants/doctor's ratio. User satisfaction studies as well as being adjusted for individual variables such as sex, age or health level should also take into account characteristics of the socioeconomic environment of the geographic area where they reside.