A Randomized Controlled Study of Improving Patient Satisfaction With Community Health Services Through Health Promotion Interventions in Xian, China

Abstract

Introduction: This study examines the effectiveness of health promotion in improving patient satisfaction with community health services. Methods: We conducted a single-blind randomized controlled trial on the patients from the Community Health Service Centres of Xi’an, China, from June to August 2022. The participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a placebo group. Both groups received 3-week WeChat education, with the intervention group receiving online intervention education including 9 items, such as about community health service, the rights and welfare of patients, the basic workflow of staff, routine medical examination items for patients, common medical knowledge, nutrition during COVID-19 pandemic, doctor-patient communication skill and medical advice and discussion, while the placebo group received related information about health care and health. Data were collected before and after the intervention, and the results were measured using a social demographic questionnaire and the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ-18), which were analysed using SPSS 23.0 version. Results: In the study, 312 patients were enrolled, with 156 assigned to the intervention group and 156 assigned to the placebo group. The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ-18) revealed that the general satisfaction domain showed the most improvement, increasing from Mean (SD)=3.474 (0.060) to Mean (SD)=3.994 (0.045) before the intervention. Results from the two-way repeated measures ANOVA show that time has a significant effect on patient satisfaction particularly the general satisfaction, technical quality, communication, financial aspect, and time spent. Conclusions: The intervention significantly improved patient satisfaction in the intervention group compared to the placebo group, particularly in the areas of general satisfaction, technical quality, communication, and time spent (test within subjects). Statistically significant differences were observed in mean values before and after the intervention.