The Effect of Sociodemographic Factors on the Patient Satisfaction with Health Care System

Abstract

Abstract The goal of this paper is to determine the level of patient satisfaction with health care among adults in the Republic of Serbia and to analyze the correlation between the satisfaction and socio-demographic characteristics of the interviewees. The paper is based on the data provided by the National health survey of the Republic of Serbia. For the purposes of this paper, we used data on age and household of the people aged 19 and more. By eliminating the interviewees who were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the health care services, we obtained the sample containing 18.206 interviewees. Demographic characteristics and well-being index represented independent variables in the research. Dependent variable of the patient satisfaction was transformed into a binary variable by categorizing satisfied and very satisfied interviewees into one group and by placing dissatisfied and very dissatisfied interviewees into group of dissatisfied patients. The connection between satisfaction and predictors was examined using Chi-Square test and logistic regression. The percentage of the satisfied patients with health care was 72.9%. The satisfaction level was directly connected to age, gender, marital status, employment, region the interviewee comes from and well-being index. Patients who were more satisfied included older people, women, as well as married people, the unemployed and those living in the cities. The analysis of the financial situation shows that the poorest interviewees were the most satisfied with health care.