Determinants of users' satisfaction with primary health care settings and services in Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVE: To identify the components of primary health care that cause most concern to service users and to identify socio-demographic and other factors associated with satisfaction among the users of primary health care centres. DESIGN: Interviews conducted by well-trained interviewers with a random sample of heads of households. The questionnaires were composed of questions that measure the extent of satisfaction with settings and services in the primary health care centres using a 5-point rating scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. SETTING: The community of Qateef, eastern Saudi Arabia. STUDY PARTICIPANTS: A sample of 802 households representing 838 families was chosen randomly from the housing lists of the primary health care centres in Qateef. There were 40 vacant houses and nine refusals. Thus the number of heads of households actually interviewed was 789. RESULTS: Waiting area structure, confidentiality measures and environmental structure were the areas that caused most concern to service users. The factors that showed the greatest association with satisfaction were the type of the primary health care centre building (purpose-built or rented), literacy status of the household head (literate or illiterate), the extent of the primary health care centre utilization (regular or infrequent). Surprisingly, age showed no association when other characteristics of the respondents were adjusted for, and sex was less important than in other studies. CONCLUSION: How regular the respondent was in using his or her primary health care centre was more predictive in deciding the extent of satisfaction with the various components in the study than the other variables. Socio-demographic factors played minor roles in deciding the extent of satisfaction, although each had a deciding role with one or more, but not all, components.