Development of a Russian satisfaction with Prenatal Care Scale

Patient satisfaction with health services is used as a measure of the quality of patient care received. The emphasis on accountability and patient as consumer has contributed to the growing interest in studying patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction with prenatal care services has not been extensively studied including instrumentation to develop a satisfaction scale. The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid scale to measure satisfaction with prenatal care services in St. Petersburg, Russia, using the 6 satisfaction dimensions in Aday and Andersen's Theoretical Framework (1974). It was conducted under the auspices of the World Health Organization, Healthy Cities Project. Although the study was conducted internationally, it provides a basis for further testing of reliability and validity in the United States. A convenience sample of 397 women with uncomplicated pregnancies and normal deliveries was studied (86% response rate). Content, construct, and predictive validity, and reliability testing using Cronbach's alpha was conducted. The scale was found to be an adequate and theoretically sound measure of satisfaction with prenatal care services in Russia. However, rather than the 6 hypothesized satisfaction dimensions, Russian women identified 2 satisfaction subscales or measures for quality of prenatal care received. One was, as hypothesized, convenience, and the other was the doctor's behavior.