[Patient satisfaction with the patient-doctor relationship measured using the questionnaire (PDRQ-9)]

To describe patient satisfaction of their relationship with the family physician, using the PDRQ-9 questionnaire and assess its psychometric properties.

Cross-sectional study.

Six Primary Care Health centres in the Community of Madrid, Spain.

Four hundred and fifty one patients randomly selected from those who had just visited their family physician.

Interviews were carried out to collect demographic characteristics, health needs, the accessibility to the service, and the socioeconomic situation of the subjects.

The PDRQ-9 responses were collected and a synthetic satisfaction index was constructed. A multivariable model was designed to explain differences in satisfaction.

The mean satisfaction index was 4.41 (95% CI: 4.33-4.48) on a scale of 1 (the worst) to 5 (the best satisfaction possible), with a median of 4.78 (interquartile range 4.00-5.00). Four of every 10 subjects expressed the maximum possible satisfaction ("ceiling effect"). A single factor explained 75.3% of the variance, with a Cronbach alpha value of 0.952. Age (OR 1.03, 95% CI: 1.02-1.05) and living in rural areas (OR 1.44, 95% CI: 0.94-2.20) were associated with above average satisfaction.

Primary care users feel their relationship with their family physicians are very satisfactory, particularly in those who are older and who live in rural areas. The PDRQ-9 questionnaire shows a high internal consistency, but it is not good enough to discriminate in the upper part of the scale.