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Introduction: HIV and AIDS care requires frequent visits to the hospital. Patient satisfaction with care services during hospital visits is important in considering quality and outcome of care. Increasing number of patients needing treatment led to the decentralization of care to lower level hospitals without documented patient perception on the quality of services. The study determined and compared patient satisfaction with HIV and AIDS care services in public and private hospitals and identified the factors that influence it.
Method: This was a cross-sectional comparative study of patients receiving antiretroviral treatment in public and private hospitals in Anambra State. The sampling frame for the hospitals consisted of all registered public and private hospitals that have rendered antiretroviral services for at least one year. There were three public urban, nine public rural, eleven private urban and ten private rural hospitals that met the criteria. One hospital was selected by simple random sampling (balloting) from each group. Out of a total of 6334 eligible patients (had received ART for at least 12 months), 1270 were recruited by simple random sampling from the hospitals proportionate to size of patient in each hospital. Adapted, validated and pretested Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ18) was interviewer-administered on consenting patients as an exit interview. A Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were conducted at 5% level of significance.
Result: There were 635 participants each in public and private hospitals. Of the 408 patients who had primary education or less, 265(65.0%) accessed care in public hospitals compared to 143(35.0%) who accessed care in private hospital (p<0.001). Similarly, of the 851 patients who were currently married, 371 (43.6%) accessed their care in public compared to 480 (56.4%) who accessed care in private (p<0.001). The proportion of participants who were satisfied were more in public hospitals (71.5%) compared to private hospitals (41.4%). The difference in proportion was statistically significant (χ2 = 116.85, p <0.001). Good retention in care [AOR: 2.3, 95%CI: 1.5-3.5] was the only predictor of satisfaction in public hospitals while primary education [adjusted odds ratio (AOR); 2.3, 95%CI: 1.5-3.4], residing in rural area [AOR: 2.0, 95%CI: 1.4-2.9], and once-daily dosing [AOR: 3.2, 95%CI: 2.1-4.8] were independent predictors of patient' satisfaction among private hospital respondents.
Conclusion: Satisfaction was higher among patients attending public hospitals. Patient's satisfaction was strongly associated with retention in care among patients in public hospitals. However, in private hospitals, it was influenced by the patient's level of education, place of residence, and antiretroviral medication dosing frequency.
