Satisfaction with Diabetes Services at Primary Care Level, Khartoum State, Sudan

Abstract

Background: Patients` satisfaction is an important source of information about outcome quality of care. The objective was to measure satisfaction with diabetes services provided to diabetic patients attending primary care health centres compared to specialized diabetes centres in Khartoum state, Sudan. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried targeting 712 diabetic patients randomly selected from 40 primary care health centres and three specialized diabetes centres in Khartoum State. A structured questionnaire was used included patients` characteristics and three point Likert scale to assess satisfaction. Ethical approval was obtained by informed consent from the patients. Data managed by statistical package for social science version 20. Factor analysis was carried to extract latent components of the scale. Multivariate analysis of variance tested the difference in satisfaction between primary care health centres and specialized diabetes centres at an acceptable level of significance less than 0.05. Results: The proportion of patients satisfied with diabetic services in primary health care centres was significantly low compared to specialized diabetes centres, 113 (24.5%) and 145 (57.8%) respectively, P=0.001. The mean satisfaction scores in primary care health centres and specialized diabetes centres were 1.85 ± 0.23 and 2.12± 0.33 respectively, P=0.001. Five factors were extracted from the satisfaction scale which contributed by 56.76% to the total variance. The mean satisfaction scores were significantly lower in primary care health centres compared to specialized diabetes centres regarding consultation session, technical capacity and referral, information and counseling and general satisfaction. Conclusion: Satisfaction with diabetes services was low in primary care health centres in Khartoum State. Capacity building regarding diabetes services at primary care level is recommended.