Related Experiment Videos
Patient satisfaction with a neurological specialist consultation for headache
Svein Ivar Bekkelund1, Rolf Salvesen
1Department of Neurology, Tromsø University Hospital, Norway. nevrsib@rito.no
Objective:
To evaluate patient satisfaction with a specialist consultation for headache and thus identify subgroups of headache patients more satisfied than others.
Design:
A survey of consecutive patients referred to a neurologist for headache.
Setting:
Neurological outpatient clinics in North Norway.
Patients:
We included 889 consecutive patients referred to a specialist centre for headache during a period of 2 years. Using a questionnaire, we recorded patients' satisfaction with the potential treatment initiated by the specialist.
Results:
Sixty-three percent of migraine patients (95% CI, 0.58 to 0.68) were satisfied with the consultation, compared to 44% of patients with non-migrainous headache (95% CI, 0.40 to 0.70), (p = 0.01). Altogether 481 patients had some kind of measure recommended by the neurologist, and 317 of these (66%) were satisfied (95% CI, 0.62 to 0.70). Patients with tension-type headache and those who were not prescribed specific treatment modalities were less satisfied.
Conclusion:
The study confirms that patients with headache are satisfied with a neurological specialist consideration, especially in the case of migraine.