Assessment of satisfaction level among patients toward services provided by dental clinics: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Although, patient satisfaction is an important factor of the quality of health care, few studies have been conducted in Saudi Arabia to assess the satisfaction of patients toward health care services in dental clinics. Thus, in this study we aim to assess patient satisfaction with healthcare services in the dental clinics in Saudi Arabia using The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire Short-Form (PSQ-18). Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted among patients who were admitted to dental clinics in order to assess the satisfaction level toward health services using The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ-18) that was distributed among the participants using online Google sheets. Results: In this study, we were able to collect data from 300 patients who went to private and governmental dental clinics and who agreed to participate in this study. Among the participants, 37.3 % were younger than 30 years old and 71.0 % of the participants were females and 96.3 % of the participants were Saudi Arabian. In general, 54.3 % of the participants were satisfied with the health service provided by the dental clinics. The results of the study showed that age was a significant factor affecting the satisfaction level of the participants (P=0.001) while there is no significant difference between genders considering satisfaction (55.42 vs 54.35). Furthermore, higher education of the participants was associated with higher level of satisfaction (P=0.002) where housewives reported the lowest level of satisfaction and students had the highest level of satisfaction (P=0.005). There is no significant difference in satisfaction between participants depending on type of clinics (P=0.963), type of the visit (P=0.841), waiting time (P=0.45), distance of the dentist (P=0.082) or location (P=0.124). Conclusion: This study showed slightly more than half of the patients of dental clinics were satisfied with health services provided by the clinics especially considering technical aspects. Older patients, non-Saudi patients, less educated patients, and those with lower income showed lower level of satisfaction. Keywords: satisfaction, dental clinics, Saudi Arabia