Determinants of patient satisfaction: treatment and clinical factors, subjective concept of the illness and quality of life

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between treatment factors, clinical factors and treatment satisfaction of psychiatric in-patients. Especially, the authors were interested in the question, whether treatment satisfaction in general and patient experiences in detail are equally affected by the factors mentioned above. Data were obtained from 91 in-patients of the Psychiatric Department of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (85 % of all patients who had been in hospital since at least 3 weeks) by questionnaires on a fixed day. Global satisfaction and patients experiences with special aspects of the services were correlated to sociodemographic variables, diagnosis, psychopathological syndromes, actual mood state, patient's concept of the illness and quality of life. Global satisfaction and the rating of special treatment components are differently affected by the patients actual mood state and prior hospitalizations. Effects of gender, diagnosis and psychopathology are low; there is no correlation between education and satisfaction on both levels. In contrast, both rating levels correlate significantly with general trust in medication and physician. There are only weak correlations between global satisfaction and quality of life. Data indicate that global and specific satisfaction ratings are different in regard to some determinants but at the same time they are both affected by attitudinal factors.